The Allerton Project: twenty-three years of agricultural and environmental data collection on a commercial farm

Abstract

The Allerton Project has long-term datasets for crop yields, economics and inputs, game species, songbirds, hares, arable invertebrates and moths extending back to a baseline year in 1992. Changes since 1993 have included manipulation of game management practices and reduction in soil management intensity, and changes in crop rotation. Economic performance of the business has been constrained by volatile crop prices and increasing input costs, especially fertiliser and grass weed herbicides associated with increasing blackgrass populations. Game and songbird numbers were influenced mainly by game management, although along with moths, these were also influenced by weather. Optimising management of non-cropped areas as well as cropped areas (through farm-scale land sparing and sharing) can contribute to multiple economic, environmental and social objectives simultaneously. Long-term data play an important role in guiding this process.