Big questions in agriculture need bigger experiments

20Sep2012

Imagine a study comparing the productivity of entire farms in a grassland ecosystem, recording the chemical constituents of water running from each field, detailing every input that goes onto the ground before finally measuring animal production. Now multiply that complexity by three contrasting farming systems and you're close to the scale and ambition of the North Wyke Farm Platform (NWFP).

Set in the Devon countryside at North Wyke, a part of the Rothamsted Research institute that receives strategic funding from BBSRC, the NWFP is one of the largest experiments underway in the UK and a unique project designed to compare different approaches to sheep and beef farming on forage yield, water and air and soil quality.

More at...

http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/news/food-security/2012/120918-f-big-questions-bi...