UNHIDE Agroforestry - A Knowledge Exchange Latvia- Sweden 2023-25 - Report - 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 most eagerly
anticipated visits during the road trip was Östergård Farm in Vrankunge, south of Växjö — a
forest grazing system with historical ties to nearby
Urshult, known for its “fruit meadow orchards”: an
ancient agroforestry system combining pasture,
haymaking, and “cow-grafted” wild apple trees.
Here, Anders Rydén has managed his production
forest since 2017 with the help of Belted Galloway
cattle. By suppressing undergrowth through grazing, forest growth is accelerated — a method that
also increases biodiversity.
When Anders inherited the family farm comprising 100 hectares of forest, Cyclone “Gudrun”
(2005), — one of the most severe environmental
disasters in Swedish history — had blown down
all trees older than 30 years, most of them spruce.
Anders’ post-storm vision was to transition away
from spruce monoculture, which in southern Sweden is highly vulnerable to drought, rot, storms,
bark beetle outbreaks, and fire, toward a deciduous forest better suited to the land and more
resilient overall.
As a boy Anders spent the summers here with
his grandparents, milking cows and helping with
the dayly cores 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 solutions. “That was the trigger,”
Anders recalls, “for mental processes leading to
improved biological processes.” He realised that
promoting broadleaved trees would be far easier
with grazing animals. Initially, he fenced off areas
and introduced four cows to graze the young
forest. Twelve years after the cyclone, the regenerating trees were large enough and not at risk
of being damaged by browsing. Soon he made
interesting observations.
