A new £3.3 million, UK government backed, research project has been launched to test a new approach to grassland farming that aims to “eliminate the dependence” on applied nitrogen fertilisers.
Project “NUE-Leg” will employ innovations in plant breeding, soil microbiology, nutrition and grassland management to boost improvements in the capacities of legumes, such as white and red clovers with soil microbes and to “fix nitrogen” from fresh air for grasslands.
The project will bring together scientific expertise and industry leaders in plant breeding and soil microbiology, agronomy, carbon emissions and the farming and food supply chain.
It will be led by Germinal, Origin Enterprises and Aberystwyth University.
Researchers aim to create on-farm conditions that will “enable clover to fix up to 300 kg of nitrogen per hectare per year”
“At these levels, additional chemical nitrogen fertilisers needed for grass growth can largely be eliminated,” according to the project outline.
As part of the project on-farm testing and evaluation will take place across 14 farms co-ordinated by Aberystwyth University and including partner organisations such as; Dovecote Park (beef), Pilgrim’s Pride (lamb), Müller UK & Ireland (dairy) and farming charity LEAF.
Clover
According to the research team legumes such as white clover have the ability to “fix atmospheric nitrogen from fresh air to meet their nutritional requirements”.
“They can do this because of a close relationship between the roots of legume plants and soil microbes called rhizobia,” researchers suggest.
New proprietary legume varieties have also been developed by Belfast and Tipperary based Germinal and Aberystwyth University in Wales that “improve the efficiency of protein uptake” by cattle from grassland which will help to reduce emissions of ammonia.
These include a proprietary hybrid clover known as ‘DoubleRoot’ and a new red clover called ‘RedRunner’.
According to the project leader DoubleRoot legumes show greater persistence in grasslands while RedRunner legumes show improved efficiency of protein uptake by livestock resulting in lower emissions of ammonia.
Methane emissions
Other varieties have also been developed which contain tannins that reduce methane emissions by cattle.
In addition the soil microbes, called rhizobia, have also been specially selected and will be matched with these various new legume varieties to help “maximise” their nitrogen fixing capacity.
The ‘NUE-Leg’ Project will evaluate the “tolerance and persistence” of these legumes on commercial farms across beef, sheep and dairy sectors.
Other partners in the new research project include the James Hutton Institute, Agrecalc, Linking Environment And Farming (LEAF), Dovecote Farm, Pilgrim’s Pride, Müller UK & Ireland and the CIEL Innovation Centre.
