Prune Trees

Lucerne trees love to be pruned!

In this Lucerne Tree Farm YouTube video, Myles describes how he prunes his mature lucerne trees for cattle and sheep feed. Most of these trees are about 6 years old and have been planted along fence lines and in rows in camps.  

Pruning always stimulates the lucerne tree to produce new, vigorous growth, develop thick, sturdy branches and trunk, as well as to maintain the trees shape and height. If farmers wish to have their animals graze directly off the lucerne trees, then they will need to regularly prune their trees to remain 1.5m height.

These pruned branches are placed in a cattle feed “ring” where the cattle or sheep strip off all the leaves, leaving bare branches. (These dried branches make exceptional fire kindling.) One mature lucerne tree yields about 50kg of fresh cuttings on each pruning which will feed about 8 cattle in a day. These pruned trees take between 3 to 5 months to recover their full growth, especially if irrigated or during the rain season, ready to be pruned again. 

16-month-old trees with thick stems & pruned to1 meter height for sheep grazing – a living, vertical haystack!

Pruned trees bounce back within 50 days!  New growth is lush, abundant and nutritious.

Multi-stemmed tree heavily pruned at 16-months

Why, where & when to prune ~

Healthy, dense leaves on thick branches

• Always use sharp, clean shears, clippers or secateurs.
• Prune very young saplings even while in their potting bags to encourage side buds along the spindly stem. Nip off the top growth tips with your fingernails.  You will quickly notice new buds along the stem which will form side branches.  Start when saplings are about 10cm – 15cm tall.
• Prune saplings about 3 weeks after planting them out in the land.  Give them time to adjust after transplanting, then prune them to stimulate new leaf growth.  Read about pruning growth tips here.
• Cut all any branches above the 1-meter height of young saplings to keep the tree short for optimal grazing for sheep or cattle.
• Aim to keep trees at 1.5m tall.
• Prune any branches that animals can not reach after they have finished grazing.  Remove any tall & spindly branches and shape the tree into a small, compact bush.
• Taller, mature trees that have outgrown 1.5m should only be pruned back by one third.  Do not cut more than a third or the tree may go into shock and die.
• Prune trees after they have gone into seed.  Cut back branches with pods and harvest your seeds.
• Prune off any broken, torn or crossing or branches that rub against other branches. Prune any branches that shoot from the base of the tree.
• Pruning causes the stem and side branches to increase in thickness, which increases the carrying capacity for foliage.
• Pruning helps form thicker, sturdier branches which are able to withstand damage and prevent branches from tearing when animals graze them.

  

  A compact tree pruned to become dense and bushy

  All pruned cuttings are food!

• Cuttings form a wonderful slash-and-drop mulch.  
• These cuttings should be fed while still green and fresh.  Cuttings can also be chipped and fed wet and green or dry to all livestock.  This is your best food-producing method — producing tonnes of wet feed. A mature 4-year-old tree can deliver tons of wet chipped food in bi-annual pruning.
• How much?  As a general estimate:  4-year old trees that have been pruned and not been grazed will yield about 50kg of wet fodder per annum.  A field with 1250 lucerne trees could therefore yield about 62 tonnes of wet feed per annum.
• Wet chipped material can form silage if bagged or closed to ferment.  This is a wonderful feed for cattle and sheep.
• Chipped material can be spread out on a tarpaulin to dry and can then be bagged and stored as dry feed.
• Hand-strip the leaves of cut branches for a quick bucket of green feed for livestock.
• Cut and drop thick layers of pruned branches around fruit trees to form a nutrient-rich, slow-composting mulch.

Here are our posts on pruning ~

• Pruning lucerne trees for cattle & sheep feed

• Prune trees when stressed

• Pruned trees bounce back!
• Dry Feed From Prunings
• Hand-strip lucerne trees for feed
• Prune your newly planted trees’ growth tips

Happy Farming!

Copyright © 2012 by Myles & Nadene Esterhuizen

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