Farmers and forestry united to unveiled to a plan future proof Australia’s housing timber industry

South Australia’s forestry leaders have launched an out of the pines plan calling on farmers to help keep up with demand and fight a national timber shortage crisis.

South-East farmers are being urged to treat trees as “just another crop” to help alleviate the nation’s timber shortage crisis.

The state’s Green Triangle is already one of the country’s key timber producers, providing 35 per cent of the industrial timber framing for Australian housing.

The Green Triangle Forest Industries Hub has brought in two industry experts – Tim Woods from IndustryEdge and Braden Jenkin from Sylva Systems – to explore how burgeoning demand can be met.

Mr Woods said every hectare of currently harvested wood was replanted but there were no new plantings to meet the rising demand, and hadn’t been for some time.

Coonawarra farmer Michael Cornish already has a well-established crop of trees incorporated into his farm. Picture: Arj Ganesan

“You’ve got a baseline supply which is consistent and stable … against a demand which continues to grow as population growth occurs,” he said.

Mr Jenkin said it was best to think of commercial trees as “just another crop,” with the added bonus of allowing farmers to use their land more effectively.

He said commonly-used circular irrigation systems called “centre pivots” didn’t reach the edges of square paddocks, leaving “a lot of inefficient space”.

“If we plant the odd bits on the outside of the centre pivot … we not only develop a wood crop, we also increase the efficiency of the centre pivot,” he said.

“(There isn’t) the same cross winds flowing through the water … (It) falls down more vertically and the water doesn’t evaporate off.”

Mr Jenkin said the goal was to develop partnerships and joint ventures between farmers and timber processors — avoiding mistakes of the past which saw farmers left with trees which no one wanted to buy.

“The managed investment scheme programs worked very well in terms of getting trees in the ground, but there was collateral damage with social licence,” Mr Jenkin said.

Over the next year GTFIH executive general manage Liz McKinnon said the it would work with farmers and timber processing companies to create a “cheat sheet” so farmers have a clear understanding of what will and won’t work on their property.

Coonawarra farmer Michael Cornish already has a well-established crop of trees incorporated into his farm.

He said trees added “shade and shelter for the stock” and helped combat climate change.

Michael Cornish at his Coonawarra property said forestry has been an asset to his farm. Picture: Arj Ganesan. Picture: Arj Ganesan

His property has 300 cattle, 3000 ewes and nearly 400ha of forestry providing more than a quarter of the farm’s income.

“We generally are harvesting over 5000 cubic metres (of softwood) per annum,” he said.

“I think the future looks tremendous for forestry.”