Wood Products Open Up Specialty Markets

	Niche agroforesty products like decorative branches for the floral market and choke cherries (below)for fruit wine promise better profits. Photos by Scott Josiah.

Wood Products Open Up Specialty Markets for Farmers

Farmers on the windy Plains who plant trees as buffers and windbreaks can realize a profit as part of their conservation efforts—and many are starting to explore the options, thanks to Scott Josiah, a state extension forester at the University of Nebraska. With a SARE grant, Josiah gathered a wealth of information about the profit-making potential of trees on farms and taught farmers about how to grow and market new products like berries, nuts, and woody florals in conservation plantings.

“Instead of considering a windbreak or streamside buffer strip as land taken out of production, why not make it a new profit center?” Josiah said.

Josiah’s data, from a survey of SARE producer grant recipients and others, literature searches, and six field trials throughout Nebraska, feeds a website featuring a financial analysis tool and marketing information.

Market research showed the floral industry to be a $20 million outlet, mainly eye-catching stems from trees and shrubs planted in rows that bring as much as $5 per linear foot. “Someone is already providing products to these markets, we just have to compete on a different level, with superior quality,” Josiah said. Likewise, nuts can bring high returns, especially hybrid hazel-nuts for the confection industry.

Growers flocked to workshops and trainings featuring production, harvest, and post-harvest handling strategies. Bruce Bostelman of Brainard, Neb., learned which plants to grow and how to market them, part of an effort to diversify his 160-acre farm. Today, Bostelman harvests willow and dogwood stems and sells them to wholesalers with farmers who met during the project and formed a cooperative to process and market their products.

“Without his [Josiah’s] research and everything he’s done in woody floral development, we wouldn’t be where we are today,” said Bostelman, who also raises small fruit for wineries and has started a nut orchard.

A forest products workshop coordinated by the Arbor Day Foundation and supported by a SARE professional development grant drew 70 extension educators and natural resource professionals from 12 states. The most visual aspect of the 2-day workshop was a hazelnut harvest on the Arbor Day Farm. Participants also learned more about incorporating specialty woody crops into conservation strategies such as living snow fences and stream bank buffers.

[For more information, go to http://snr.unl.edu/forestry/specialtyforestproductsintro.htm or go to www.sare.org/projects and search for LNC01-197 and ENC00-054.]

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