Rothamsted Research

We tend to find that from our trials that you can get a good return on investment here.

Your yields can be improved as we've had two years of trial data with Rothamsted research showing that the use of an organomineral fertilizer really boosts the yields.

So again, you can bring your application rates down or use less dependency on synthetics through a season.

Do

you have any data on what the yields look like through those trials?

So we've been doing trials with Rothamsted Research, independent trials here for the last two years, and this year is year three in the ground, and we're excited to find out the results.

But what we found using an organomineral fertilizer, so this is a combination of organic and mineral, we were shown in a spring barley trials, average increase of about 21% of yields over the a comparable mpk fertilizer in the trial plots we were showing at the moment that based on average grain prices that it represents an increase in revenue of about 205 pounds a hectare just based on changing the fertilizer over to a organo mineral fertilizer

wow that's interesting and does that take into account the difference cost of the fertilizers the overall margin increase

Some wood samples.

Dr Grace Kangara is a soil scientist based at Rothamsted Research in Harpenden.

Before working in the UK, Grace worked in Uganda, South Africa and Zimbabwe to see how different farming methods affected crop nutrition.

She is now applying similar analysis to regenerative farming systems here in the UK, including on commercial farms such as the growers who supply wild farmed.

So because of the different factors it is difficult to attribute a certain increase But when we move on to the large-scale rotation experiment, that is very controlled.

So we are able to attribute any differences that we see to the specific treatments, for example, crop rotation or wheat varieties that are grown.

Dr Grace Kangara at Rothamsted Research.

It's clear to me how important and vital it could be for farmers and food producers in developing countries to be able to produce food for people that are rich in nutrients.

The professor gave the recipe away in a book.

John Bennett Laws had inherited the Rothamsted estate at Harpenden in Hertfordshire, north of London, and had been dissolving bones and mineral phosphates in sulfuric acid and trying the result on his turnips.

In one sentence, Rothamsted's own history records what came of it.

This invention, patented in 1842, enabled him to construct the world's first commercial fertilizer factory.

The factory opened in 1843 at Deptford Creek on the Thames.

In 1843, he appointed a chemist, Joseph Henry Gilbert, to work with him.

The partnership lasted 57 years.

In the autumn of 1843, the two men sowed winter wheat on a field at Rothamsted called Brodbach.

We k- We're tr- gonna try and keep these short and sweet, and do as many as we can, but, um, tell us about the, uh, very exciting project that, uh, that's just got off the ground with your-

Well, he, he doesn't have Rothamsted Research on his, his-

No.

Ah, no.

No.

It's not Rothamsted Research.

Okay.

So tell us why now.

I'm making my way across a very dry but slightly uneven field.

I'm at Rothamsted Research in Harpenden, not that far, as you will hear, from Luton Airport.

This has been...

A very important research station for the UK for many years.

That is to say they recruit beneficial insects to ward off the insects that would eat them.

So it was discovered by some research at Rothamsted Experimental Station in Harpenden that wild potatoes produce a pheromone, that is to say, a sort of gaseous hormone, that attracts the parasites of aphids.

So when aphids attack this, these wild potatoes, the potatoes give off this pheromone.

It brings in these parasites, they're called parasitoids, in fact.

I've had a look at, uh, Henry Stephens' Book of the Farm.

He talks extensively about a place called Rothamsted, where they set up an experimental station, um, and researched all sorts of different types of fertilizers.

And the great thing is, this experimental station is still going today.

So I think what I'm gonna do is see if I can, um, get some of their experts down to give me a little bit of advice.

Rothamsted Experimental Station was set up in 1843 to develop fertilizers, and scientists like Dr. John Jenkin continue this work to the present day.

Hello, Alex.

Hello, John.