Young dairy cattle graze the rows between the Peacock family’s forestry plantation at Londrigan.
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The extra protection provided by the trees at the property, Carinya, shields them from the elements and extends the grass-growing season — providing extra feed for the heifers on agistment from Tatura.
Then there’s 100 olive trees, planted about 10 years ago.
It’s all part of Sally and Tim Peacock’s plan to diversify their 60-acre block.
The property is also home to their children Chloe, six months, Audrey, 3, and Jessica, 6, as well as a gaggle of geese, Bruce the dog and Ben the pony.
Today, the family is being visited by Department of Primary Industries senior farm forestry officer Philippa Noble.
The Peacocks are showing her the progress of the property they bought three years ago.
“I think some people were scared off by all the trees but we thought it was a benefit,” Mrs Peacock said.
The trees — red gums, blue gums, yellow box and ironbark — are six years old. Of the 60 acres, 40 acres is under trees — either forestry or olive.
The family has started picking out some of the best trees for possible firewood next year.
“We’ll cull out whatever we don’t think will make good firewood,” Mrs Peacock said.
She said they had also begun pruning some of the trees to encourage singular trunk growth and optimise sunlight getting to the ground.
“We want to maintain grazing for as long as possible,” she said.
The trees are self-coppicing, meaning if you cut down the live tree and leave the stump in the ground it will reshoot.
The Peacocks have two wood fires, a slow combustion stove and a combustion heater.
Mrs Peacock is at home on maternity leave from her role as a DPI animal health officer yet Mr Peacock said he’d been surprised at how little wood they’d used.
“You’ve got to burn dry wood and burn it efficiently,” he said.
The family has also been running their hot water through the stove.
Mrs Peacock said one of the issues raised against a forestry plantation was fear of fire.
However, she said the plantation actually slowed the wind down and the ground underneath the trees was often covered in green grass long before and after neighbours were dealing with bare paddocks.
For now they are happy with their set-up but it is in the future that it could provide some larger benefits.
“Hopefully one day we make some money out of it,” Mr Peacock said.
“But we don’t intend on ever cutting all the trees down.”