UNHIDE Agroforestry booklet 2025.09.22 - Flipbook - Page 12
Östergård farm: Combined forest grazing & forestry, Sweden
Anders is employed as a Service Technician in Växjö and is not
dependent on making a living from the forest, at this stage.
”GRAZING IS A TOOL
TO CREATE MORE ROBUST
ECOSYSTEMS”- Anders Rydén
ÖSTERGÅRD FARM. One of our much awaited
visits during the road trip was Östergård farm in
Vrankunge south of Växjö, a forest grazing system
with a historical connection to nearby Urshult,
known for its “fruit meadow orchards”; an ancient
agroforestry system of combined pasture, mowing and “cow-grafted” wild apple trees. Here,
Anders Rydén has been managing his production
forest since 2017 with the help of Belted Galloway cattle, to suppress undergrowth, in order to
get faster forest growth. A method that increases
biodiversity.
When Anders inherited the family farm with 100
hectares of forest, the cyclone “Gudrun” (2005),
one of the biggest environmental disasters in
Swedish history, had blown down all the trees that
were 30 years or older, mostly spruce. Anders’
intention for post-storm management was a transition from spruce monoculture, which is severely
threatened by drought, rot, storms, spruce bark
beetle infestations and fire in southern Sweden,
to a deciduous forest, which is more robust and
suits the land better.
As a boy Anders spent the summers here with his
grandparents, milking cows and helping on the
farm. Apple trees around the farm gave the cows
shade in the summer and shelter during harsh
winters.
“CRISIS IS THE MOTHER
OF INVENTION”
Managing the forest after the storm required
unconventional help. “This was the trigger”,
Anders recalls, “for mental processes leading up
to improved biological processes”, realizing that
favouring broadleaved trees was easier with grazing animals. Initially he fenced and let four cows
in, to graze in the young forest. The new trees that
had grown up (12 years after the cyclone) were
large enough and not at risk of being damaged
by browsing. Soon he made interesting observations.
