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TYPES OF WINDBREAKS

Windbreak Benefits

Windbreaks reduce the harsh winds by diverting and filtering them through the trees.

You can:

  • Increase your home value (and beauty)

  • Save on heating and cooling costs

  • Protect your buildings, crops, and a lot else

  • Enhance your outdoor recreational opportunities

  • Support wildlife

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From our Customers:

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“When the wind is blowing real hard or it snows, from the highway you can see how the windbreak protects the farm. I’ve been very, very pleased with the assistance and trees I’ve gotten from the Texas A&M Forest Service.” - Bob Hirsch, former ag teacher

 

“I feel like being responsible for the land is something I am passing along to my kids just like my dad did for me. He planted a windbreak when I was young and still enjoys it today. I planted mine to mark my property boundary and for aesthetic reasons.” - Roy Hendley, rural property owner

How Windbreaks Work.jpg

Windbreak Types

If you’re ready to plant a windbreak, the Texas A&M Forest Service West Texas Nursery can help. With a variety of high-quality and low-cost tree seedlings available, our foresters and technicians will help tailor the windbreak to your land.

 

Homestead Windbreak

  • Cut heating and cooling costs, reduce dust and noise, and prevent snow drifts with Homestead Windbreaks. This kind can significantly increase the value and look of your home.

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Tip:

  • This windbreak should extend at least 100 ft beyond the designated area.​​​

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Homestead Windbreak.jpg
Field Windbreak.jpg

Field Windbreak

  • Conserve soil moisture and reduce soil loss. These Field Windbreaks are specifically designed to protect crops and orchards, control snow deposits, and create a habitat for wildlife.

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Tips:

  • This windbreak should consist of at least 3 rows of trees and shrubs

  • A series of windbreaks may be needed to protect large areas

  • The distance between windbreaks should be no more than 20 H (H = the mature height of the tallest tree).

Livestock Windbreak

  • Help keep cattle warm in the cold, and thus spend less on feed. With the extra weight gain rather than body heat, report a lower animal death rate, made possible by the Livestock Windbreak

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Feedlot tip:

  • Surface water runoff should drain away from the windbreak.

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Rangeland tips:

  • Livestock need easy access to the protected area.

  • All water in the protected area should drain away from the windbreak.

  • L- or U-shaped windbreaks should be planted perpendicular to prevailing winds.

  • Deciduous trees and shrubs can be added to attract wildlife.

Livestock Windbreak.jpg

Living Snow Fence

  • Multipurpose plantings, these Living Snow Fences prevent snow from drifting across roads and provide a habitat for wildlife. During the cold months, they can protect livestock from the winter temperatures-- all while storing 16 times the amount of snow that a traditional wood-slat fence will hold.

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Tips:

  • Plant this windbreak parallel to and north of the road or highway being protected.

  • Make this windbreak with two adjacent rows of evergreens and at least one row of shrubs planted 40 feet to the north of the windbreak to serve as a buffer.

  • The first row should be at least 200 feet from the road’s edge.

  • The Living Snow Fence should extend 50 feet beyond the section of road that’s being protected.

Living Snow Fence.jpg
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