Skip to main content Skip to main navigation Skip to search

Help for those affected by flood

Visit nema.gov.au.

Close
Home

Top navigation main

  • News & media
  • Jobs
  • Minister
  • Contact us
Main menu

AWE Main

  • Agriculture and land
    Agriculture and land Building stronger and more sustainable agriculture, fisheries, forestry and land care.
    • Animal health
    • Climate change and agriculture
    • Farming, food and drought
    • Fisheries
    • Forestry
    • Plant health
    • Drought and rural support
    • Mouse infestation advice
    Xylella

    Protect against unwanted plant pests

    Our biosecurity system helps protects us. Everyone has a role in supporting our biosecurity system.

    Find out more

  • Biosecurity and trade
    Biosecurity and trade Lowering biosecurity risks to Australia, and assisting industry to accelerate growth towards a $100 billion agricultural sector by 2030.
    • Aircraft, vessels and military
    • Biosecurity policy
    • Cats and dogs
    • Exporting
    • Importing
    • Pests, diseases and weeds
    • Public awareness and education
    • Trade and market access
    • Travelling or sending goods to Australia
    Brown marmorated stink bug

    BMSB Seasonal Measures

    Australia has strengthened seasonal measures to manage the risk of BMSB.

    View our seasonal measures

  • Science and research
    Science and research Undertaking research and collecting data to support informed decisions and policies.
    • Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES)
    • Office of the Science Convenor
    • Plant Innovation Centre
    Abares

    ABARES Insights

    Get 'snapshots’ of agricultural, forestry and fisheries industries, or analysis of key issues.

    Find out more

  • About us
    About us We enhance our agricultural industries and trade, and manage the threat of biosecurity risks to Australia.
    • Accountability and reporting
    • Assistance, grants and tenders
    • Contact us
    • Fees and charges
    • News and media
    • Our commitment to you
    • Payments
    • People and jobs
    • Publications
    • What we do
    • Who we are
    Read more about our Budget

    Budget October 2022-23

    The 2022–23 October Portfolio Budget Statements were released on 25 October 2022.

    Find out more

  • Online services
    Online services We do business with you using online platforms. This makes it easier for you to meet your legal requirements.
Department of Agriculture

Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. Agriculture and land
  3. Forestry
  4. Australia's forests
  5. Plantations and farm forestry
  6. Farm forestry management strategies

Sidebar first - Forestry

  • Plantations and farm forestry
    • Farm forestry publications
      • Development of Project Planning and Evaluation for Farm Forestry
      • Farm Forestry National Action Statement
      • Farm Forestry Supplement
      • Farm Forestry's Role
      • The development of an effective methodology to capture forest type condition and volume data for privately managed forests
    • Farm forestry management resources
    • National principles related to wood production in plantations
    • Taxation incentives to establish forests

Farm forestry management resources

It is important to manage farm forestry with a well thought-out management plan that addresses the financial, environmental, agricultural, non-agricultural, and personal and business goals of the farm.

Whole business planning has been widely promoted within the farming community under headings such as whole farm planning or property management planning. These approaches use several tools to help landholders define their forestry-related goals and personal performance criteria.

Private Forests Tasmania has developed the 'Farm Forestry Toolbox'. The toolbox is a CD with a collection of user-friendly programs and information. Programs like this can help in farm forestry management.

Before taking up farm forestry, remember:

Planning - do all your homework, talk to many people and design the approach that satisfies your particular requirements (whether they are profitability, shelter, landcare). Joining your local farm forestry network can help.

Establishment - whichever venture you choose, make sure you set it up properly. Poorly established sites will never be successful and profitable.

Management - do what is necessary to ensure the trees meet the market demand. Don't grow trees that no one will want to buy!

Marketing - make sure you know or understand from the start all your tree marketing options, including various lease options. Growing good trees is one thing, but only those who undertake the smartest marketing/sales options will reap the rewards from their farm forestry venture.

Farm forestry establishment

Initial establishment and design is an important phase of farm forestry. To ensure your venture meets optimum standards, you must do your initial planning well before developing your farm forestry site.

The site design can be based on a single species, or can be integrated with local natives to promote biodiversity and habitat values. You must take care with design to ensure you achieve optimum environmental benefits without compromising management and returns from the commercial timber species. Some designs you may wish to consider are:

plantation
Plantations are a long-rotation agricultural crop that can produce large volumes of wood per unit area. In parts of Australia, for example, plantations yield up to 14 times more wood per hectare than native forests for wood production, largely because of plant selection and breeding, and more intensive management techniques.

 

 

 

 

 

 woodlot

Woodlots: These are small opportunistic plantings of any shape for many purposes. They may include triangles in paddock corners, circles for mid-paddock shelter and firewood blocks near the house. You can easily integrate woodlots with agriculture and manage them to deal with environmental issues.

 


 

 

 

timber belt
Belts are linear plantings of one or more parallel lines of trees. They can be straight (along a fence), curved or irregular (along a stream). Belts can be easily integrated with other agricultural activities.

 

 

 

 

 


wide spaced
Wide spaced:
This involves trees established several or more metres apart. Wide spaced plantations can be pruned for clearwood and integrated with stock grazing or intercropped with fodder trees and shrubs.

 

 

 

 

 


native forest
Native Forests: Using and managing private native forests is becoming more significant with the transfer of State Forest areas to permanent reserves in some parts of Australia. Private native forests can be effectively managed so that they have a commercial value while still ensuring that the environmental benefits of the native forest stand are enhanced.



Silviculture – managing trees

 Through silviculture, we can manipulate forest stands and the trees within them. Farm silviculture is about designing a regime to suit your needs and aims. Silviculture is the farm forester’s most powerful tool and the means by which you may turn ‘firewood’ into high-value veneer or sawn timber.

There are many silvicultural options. Farmers should not just accept someone else’s idea of the ‘best bet silvicultural regime’. Think about your options and design your own.

A ‘silvicultural regime’ is simply a plan of management interventions imposed on a tree or the forest in which trees are growing. Initial spacing and layout, establishment methods, thinning and pruning, fire and grazing, and harvesting patterns are some of the tools used to manipulate the growth of the trees (see the Australian Master TreeGrower Program website for more information. 

Once planted, there are three basic silviculture options: leave the stand to grow; thin the stand to improve its growth; or disturb the stand enough to encourage vigorous natural regeneration.

Pruning and thinning the stand, for example, may help improve the quality and value of the timber produced. Pruning involves removing branches from the main trunk of a tree, while thinning removes some trees from the stand to reduce competition for light, soil moisture and nutrients among the remaining trees.

Given that manipulating the growth of trees will affect their quality, there are many things to consider before deciding on a silvicultural regime. Like any business decision, you must undertake research and planning to help make an informed decision.


General enquiries

Call 1800 900 090

Contact us online

Report a biosecurity concern

Thanks for your feedback.
Thanks! Your feedback has been submitted.

We aren't able to respond to your individual comments or questions.
To contact us directly phone us or submit an online inquiry

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Please verify that you are not a robot.

Skip

Footer

  • Contact us
  • Accessibility
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy
  • FOI
Last updated: 04 November 2019

© Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.