The Allerton Project's first 25 years: part 2

Abstract

For more than 25 years, the Allerton Project has been researching the relationship between productive land use, wildlife conservation and other environmental benefits such as better water quality and improved ecology. Over that time, wildlife has responded, with songbird numbers doubling, for example. As on farms across the country, however, the core activity of food production has become considerably less profitable in recent years. The farm employs a crop rotation of wheat, oilseed rape, and a second wheat, followed by either field beans or spring-sown oats, and barley is now returning to the rotation. Hemp, linseed and flax have been grown in the past. Spring-sown crops are becoming increasingly important for the control of the highly competitive mainly autumn-germinating grassweed, Blackgrass Alopecurus myosuroides.