Open weekend for the public › Grassland Systems Science

The following display is located in the conference centre.

Grazing cow

Grass - crop or weed?

The UK has a combined land area of 24 million ha, of which 75% is in agricultural use. Of the total area, 13.1% is in cereals, 4.2% supports other crops, 1.5% produces fodder crops and more than half (ca 52%) is under grassland (source MAFF, 2000a). Based in Devon, North Wyke is the home to grassland research at Rothamsted. Why so far away? The simple answer is rainfall. The soil types and high rainfall prevalent on the western side of the country -not to mention the hills - do not lend themselves particularly well to arable farming. What grows is grass and since farming is all about food production, the focus in the west has been about turning something inedible into something edible. The work at North Wyke is about striking the balance. Visit our stand to discover how we address the issue of continued food production, but balance it against the need to reduce greenhouse gases, find renewable energy sources and the desire to preserve our environment.

Biomathematics and Bioinformatics	Plant and Invertebrate Ecology

National Capabilities

Rothamsted Research receives
strategic funding from the BBSRC

• BBSRC Institutes

• Babraham Institute
• Institute for Animal Health
• Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences
• Institute of Food Research
• John Innes Centre
• Rothamsted Research
• The Genome Analysis Centre
• The Roslin Institute