Silvopasture Economics in the Southeastern U.S.
Published:
The decision
Silvopasture integrates trees into grazing land. It promises higher long-run returns and meaningful carbon storage, but conversion is expensive up front and the payoff arrives over decades. Landowners, extension agents, and conservation programs all need a defensible answer to a narrow question: under what conditions does conversion pencil out?
Approach
Enterprise budgets for conventional pasture and silvopasture systems are combined with biophysical estimates of carbon accumulation, then carried through a discounted cash flow over a full rotation. The comparison holds site quality and management intensity fixed so the difference reflects the system, not the land.
What this supports
Results speak to the size and timing of carbon payment needed to close the gap for a representative operation. They do not speak to adoption behaviour, credit market access, or heterogeneity across soil types, all of which would need separate work.
Coauthors: Bradford Mills, Kurt Stephenson, John Fike.