ABOUT
Our main base is at Rothamsted Farm in Harpenden (330Ha), home of the ‘Classical’ agricultural experiments started by our founder Sir John Lawes in 1843. We also have 2 further arable units, 33Ha at Woburn Experimental Farm in mid Bedfordshire and 77Ha at Brooms Barn Farm in Suffolk. These farms are predominately arable and host an array of studies.
The 350Ha North Wyke Farm is managed by our team in Devon. Predominately grassland, the farm is home to a 120 head beef suckler herd and 360 Suffolk x ewes. State of the art housing and handling facilities provide the perfect base for livestock research.
Field experimentation at Rothamsted and Woburn Farms are based on current scientific programmes and the farms are a major service provider to our science community. On farm we have facilities to provide specific field conditions, rotational slots and to offer different soil types across the arable land we manage. We can provide experimentation in the major UK crops of wheat, barley, oilseed rape, field beans and oats. We have also grown potatoes, sugar beet as well as more niche crops for specific purposes, such as GM cropping in our secure sites. Another area of our work is in biomass production providing sites for 10 biomass experiments a year in willow and miscanthus
On average we run 120 experiments throughout the year and harvest up to 12000 plots during the summer. Our dedicated team have many years’ experience in agricultural research and include trained BASIS and FACTS agronomists. We also have expertise in field planning, GPS systems and plot mechanisation.
On farm we have a full fleet of commercial agricultural machinery to provide cultivation and seedbed scenarios such as would be found in the industry. We also have a fleet of specialised plot machinery to provide experimentation on these cultivated fields.
Genomically Modified Crops
Rothamsted is currently one of the very few sites in the UK where field trials of crops developed using new genomic techniques can take place at farm scale. GM cropping is available at both the Harpenden and Brooms Barn sites.
All current UK DEFRA approved trials can be viewed here.
Interested in making use of our unique capabilities for your field trial? Please contact us using this form.
