Farming at the Cutting Edge
Measuring to manage
Introduction
Our relationship to food has never been more important. With more people, consuming more on average, and a limited amount of space that can be turned into farmland, it’s never been more important that we make the most of the land that’s available and the resources - both in terms of human ingenuity and material inputs - that we use to farm it.
If we want our food system to work for us, as well as for the environment we rely on, we need to optimise what goes in, to maximise what comes out, while measuring the environmental outcomes - both desirable and undesirable - of the way we produce and consume food.
At the University of Leeds Research Farm, farmers and academics, working with industry partners, are at the cutting edge of measuring and managing both how our food is produced and the impacts of our consumption on people and the environment.
Flux towers measure the changing content of the atmosphere above the soil
Livelihoods & Economics
Working on a commercial farm offers a unique insight into the real world consequences for farmers of changes to how food is produced. Moving from blanket application of fertiliser to a system in which every plant gets exactly the amount of nutrients they need not only reduces the negative effects of fertiliser runoff, it also significantly improves a farmer’s bottom line. Tailoring pig feed to optimise growth and improve the health and welfare of pigs for pork has a similar benefit. By working closely with farmers, measuring what matters to them and to society, we can make sure our research is relevant to the lives of farmers in the real world.
From micro to macro scales
The whole systems approach we take to understanding food systems means we look at everything from crop genetics, soil structure and groundwater contaminants to the global implications of climate change, global consumption patterns and everything in between. Only by capturing the ways that different parts of the system interact can we understand what needs to happen from a local to a global level in terms of practices and policies.
Human and animal health
At the farm we are pioneering research into how veterinary medicines used in farming affect the water we drink, and how different feed and veterinary treatment standards affect animal health, as well as examining one of the greatest challenges of our time - the effect of farming on the resistance of microbes to antibiotic treatment. Only by measuring the intricate connections between human health, the food we eat, and how it is produced can we shape the system for pro-health outcomes.
Environment
Understanding how what we eat affects the environment is central to everything that happens at the farm. By monitoring farming inputs and environmental impacts on a commercial farm we can understand precisely how what we eat and how it is produced impacts on the environment, both locally, and globally.
Technology and the future of food
The research farm is at the heart of the University’s work to transform the way we produce and consume food. We are developing technologies and practices to measure everything from the genetics of crops to the movement of pigs around the farm. We are measuring the waste produced by our pig farm, and the effect it has on the environment. And we are moving from relying on periodic sampling to measure soil and water quality to continuous, real-time sensing.
Research Facilities and Active Research Projects
N2 Project - cutting edge innovation
N2 Applied has developed plasma technology, a system that reduces the emissions from slurry while at the same time increasing the nutrient content of the slurry, thus leaving a more valuable fertiliser.
The role of the National Pig Centre has to be to lead on the integration and implementation of technologies that will make pig production sustainable and profitable. The addition of a commercial-scale N2 Applied slurry processing unit to the NPC represents part of this effort to define what future pig farming should look like. Our vision is to provide a roadmap for pig farmers to reduce GHG emissions and achieve carbon neutrality well before the NFU’s 2040 target while at the same time improving productivity and profitability.
The N2 equipment at the NPC will also explore animal health benefits, soil health improvements and optimising nutrient use efficiency in pig production, with testing mainly focused on the centre’s indoor sow unit.
Agricultural Robotics
The robotic system consists of a multi-purpose robotic platform, two robotic arms, and different types of end-effectors for planting, de-weeding, fertilizing, ploughing, spraying, picking and harvesting, a variety of sensors, including at least 2 force sensors, 2GPS, environmental sensors, inertial sensors and a vision system with 4 cameras.
The proposed instrumentation will support research and innovation on robotic manipulation such as soft manipulators, force sensing, path planning, control and intelligence. Other areas that will be supported include vision-guided autonomous control for food harvesting, sorting and packaging, e.g., vision-based sorting techniques, robot navigation in farms, multi-sensing techniques for harvesting and food quality inspection. These capabilities can also address orchards robotics including fundamental sensing techniques, autonomous orchard robot development, and robotic arms for picking fruit or pollinating flowers.
Multi-sensor Agricultural Robot for Soils (MARS)
A STFC Food Network+ funded project, starting in 2022. Our capacity to produce food is threatened by increasing temperatures and the likelihood of more droughts and floods with climate change. Additionally, agricultural soils, a precious resource for food production, have been depleted by conventional management practices. Improving soil health is essential to make food systems more resilient, but sampling and analysing soils at scale is quite costly and labour intensive. The combination of novel sensors with new ways of analysing data is a promising approach. In this project, we will explore the use of lower cost gamma ray sensing to produce maps that can help farmers manage their crops more sustainably. We will combine these gamma ray sensors with ultrasound and other sensors deployed on an agricultural robot, which will be tested at the Leeds Farm. The proposed system will contribute to making agriculture more resilient to climate change, more profitable and more sustainable.
Farm2lab project
Demonstrating that genetic variants with demonstrable benefits under lab conditions will still have those benefits when grown under field conditions is difficult, typically requiring multi-year assessment of new crop varieties in field trials.
The facility accelerates the translation of lab-based research to the farm and farm-based research to the lab by providing the capability to mirror, in real-time, fluctuating light and temperature conditions at the University of Leeds Farm and other field sites. It provides the means to test future climate scenarios by varying elements of the physical environment such as temperature, rainfall and CO2 levels, either individually or in combination. Our Farm2Lab facility enables us to demonstrate that new germplasm is 'farm ready' in a lab environment. It accelerates the testing of new varieties.