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The farm is located between Leeds and York, covering approximately 317 hectares, bringing together four farmsteads.

Currently, about 75% of the land is used for arable farming, including wheat, barley and oil seed rape. There are smaller plots used for potatoes and peas. A small number of agroforestry plots are located across the farm, covering 7.7 hectares.

The site’s elevation ranges from 42 to 70 metres above sea level.

Soils are typically shallow (less than 50cm deep across large areas) well-drained, calcareous, fine loamy soils (Aberford Series) lying above a dolstone aquifer of the Cadeby Formation.

The climate is typical of the region. Due to its position in the rain shadow of the Pennines, the site has a relatively low annual rainfall, mild winters and cool summers.

The annual average rainfall is 674mm, with August being the wettest month (65.9mm) and February the driest (46mm).

Average temperatures range from a low of 4°C in January to a high of 16°C in August, with an annual average temperature of 9°C. The average minimum daily temperature between December and February is below freezing.

The University of Leeds Research Farm, once complete, will implement state-of-art field instrumentation for intensive, integrated Earth and agricultural observation and experimentation at the land surface, extending from the surface of below-ground bedrock, through groundwater, the soil and vegetation cover to the atmospheric boundary layer. The development of the site is an ongoing process with new instrumentation and facilities being added all the time. The farm is a unique, world-leading capability for innovation in agriculture and environmental management; linking the following observing and experimentation systems:

Dynamic water budget including soil, groundwater, pollution and lysimeter manipulations
Tracking vegetation dynamics including crops and biodiversity,
Weather dynamics and land-atmosphere exchange of Greenhouse gases, water and aerosols,
Atmospheric chemistry and physics and interaction with vegetation and land surface
Precision crop/livestock agriculture with GPS, imaging, AI and robotics,
Manipulating plants/soil in a rhizotron root observatory and free-air CO2 enrichment,
Tracing food through the supply chain to consumers and resource recovery
Integration of land and remote data streams for analytics and computer simulation.

To collaborate with us or use the University of Leeds Research farm in a project of field trial email the Farm.

Visit the Global Food and Environment website for more information about the current research happening at the farm site.

The National Pig Centre

The National Pig Centre (NPC) is the UK’s largest and most advanced facility for research into pig nutrition, behaviour, welfare and health, and production systems. Experienced research staff and technicians co-develop and conduct high-quality research programmes in collaboration with academic and industry partners to address current challenges in pig science and commercial agricultural practices.

Learn more and take a tour of the National Pig Centre by watching this short introductory video: Here

The Centre has been designed to perform:

Nutrition trials from farrow to finish, with capabilities to provide specific diets both for replicate pens of pigs and for individual pigs within a group.

Evaluation of different housing and management systems, including:

Indoor vs outdoor production systems.

Farrowing systems: Conventional crates vs loose farrowing systems.

Flexi-penning for flexibility with trial design.

Water preference or water-based treatment trials

Additional features include:

CCTV throughout the whole facility for 24/7 pig behaviour, welfare and farrowing assessments. Dissection facilities for tissue collection and a laboratory for sample processing. Ultrasound scanner for collection of in utero measurements.

State of the art Indoor pig research Facility:

Accommodating a 440-sow integrated herd, producing over 12,000 pigs per year, the unit operates on a three-week batch farrowing system and houses pigs from birth through to market weight.

The combination of the indoor system with an outdoor sow unit is unique in Europe, enabling direct comparison of the different rearing systems.

The facility is equipped with CCTV throughout, permitting round the clock behaviour and individual pig observations to be made at all stages of production. The technology elicits detailed data (visual and individual feed/weight) with minimal intervention.

Our Research

The NPC is home to the PigSustain project, led by Prof Lisa Collins. PigSustain is a £2.1 million project funded by the Global Food Security Programme that uses a multi-systems approach to forecast the future resilience of the UK pig industry. An on-farm, automated and continuous monitoring system will provide early warning and assessment of pig health and welfare to predict outputs. Current and historic data on pig production is analysed in relation to changes in climate, intensification, market stability and consumer demand. This will be used to produce a model that will help assess the economic resilience and global competitiveness of the UK pig industry in the face of current and future challenges.