Nathan L. Morris

National Institute of Agricultural Botany · Crops and Agronomy

Aims Reduced tillage has been advocated as a practical measure to increase soil carbon in long-term cropping soils. We examine three medium-term experiments in sites with contrasting soil and climatic characteristics in the UK. The objectives were to determine the effects of different reduced and zero tillage practices on bulk density and soil carb...

The STAR project (Sustainability Trial in Arable Rotations) is a long-term study at Stanaway Farm, Otley, Suffolk, UK on a Beccles/Hanslope Series (heavy) clay soil. Research is delivered through NIAB TAG, supported in part by The Felix Thornley Cobbold Trust (and historically the Chadacre Agricultural Trust) and guided by an independent steering g...

Nitrogen (N) requirements of wheat are notoriously variable and difficult to predict, despite much research to develop recommendation systems. Recent studies also show a significant farm effect on grain protein content. This suggests a farm factor may be causing N requirements to differ, even where the RB209 recommendation would be the same. Some f...

Current advice for arable crop rotations is to maintain soils at P Index 2 (16–25 mg/l Olsen P). This is considered to be the level of plant-available soil P needed to achieve optimum yields of arable crops in most years and to ensure that other agronomic inputs are used effectively. Previous research has indicated that even a large amount of fresh...

Three long term and one newer soil management experiments from eastern Britain were used to answer several key questions relevant for cereal growers. The questions focused on soil physical and chemical conditions (including possible carbon accumulation) for crop growth and comparing cultivar, yield and economic performance under different tillage r...

Deep burrowing earthworms are important ecosystem service providers but their populations are reduced by arable cultivations. We need to both better understand the impact of changes in crop management on earthworms and implement practices to enhance their in-field populations. Two current trends in arable cropping are the increased use of non-inver...

Cover crops are grown primarily for the purpose of ‘protecting or improving’ between periods of regular crop production. There are four main types of use including; improving soil fertility, improving soil structure, managing weeds and pests and environmental management. The most appropriate cover crop species/management will depend on what the gro...

Cover crops have great potential to contribute to the sustainable intensification of crop production through several mechanisms including: improving soil structure/quality; improving cash crop establishment; greater nutrient and water retention; reducing the risk of soil erosion, surface run off and diffuse pollution by providing soil cover; managi...

The ‘Soil Platforms’ project (AHDB Project 3786 - Platforms to test and demonstrate sustainable soil management: integration of major UK field experiments) works with some of the longest running contemporary UK soil tillage experiments. The four sites within the ‘Soil Platforms’ project are at Mid Pilmore (Perthshire, Scotland, established 2003), t...

Introduction There is increasing 'on farm' interest in the use of cover crops to improve productivity and resilience of farming systems, and also for their capacity to provide wider environmental benefit. These goals are very much in keeping with Sustainable Intensification (SI) aspirations. While the term SI can be subjective, the Sustainable Inte...

Mouldboard ploughing affects soil bulk density, aeration, drainage, thermal regimes, and soil microorganisms (Sun et al., 2011). Tillage breaks up plant residues, may degrade previously protected organic matter and potentially release CO2 to the atmosphere (Farina et al., 2011). Reduced tillage through either no till or non-inversion tillage to sha...

NIAB TAG’s New Farming Systems (NFS) research programme, currently in year nine and based at Morley in Norfolk, consists of several long-term field trials aiming to develop bio-sustainable cropping systems for conventional arable cropping. A component of the trials is evaluating the impact on energy efficiency of reduced or non-inversion tillage,...

The STAR project (Sustainability Trial in Arable Rotations) is a long-term study at Stanaway Farm, Otley, Suffolk on a Beccles/Hanslope Series (heavy) clay soil. Research is delivered through NIAB TAG, supported in part by The Felix Thornley Cobbold Trust (and historically the Chadacre Agricultural Trust) and guided by an independent steering group...

This paper reports how non-inversion (reduced) tillage impacts energy consumption and crop yield, utilising 8 years of replicated field trials undertaken by The New Farming Systems study in the East of England. Tillage regimes include: (1) plough, (2) shallow non-inversion (typically 10 cm), and (3) deep non-inversion (20-25 cm) within two rotation...

The Kellogg's Origins initiative brings together progressive farming and food manufacturing businesses with a common interest in improving supply chain efficiency for the production of high quality grain meeting consumer sustainability demands. Research demonstrates that consumers across Europe have a strong purchase intent based on greening and ho...

The New Farming Systems (NFS) research project is being undertaken on a sandy loam soil at Morley (Norfolk, UK). The programme is funded by The Morley Agricultural Foundation and The JC Mann Trust and is a series of large scale, long term, replicated experiments examining routes to augment the stability and output of conventional arable farming sys...

Crop yields increase, rapidly at first and then more slowly, as the amount of plant-available soil phosphorus (P) increases from a very low level (highly deficient) to a level at which maximum yield is reached. The amount of readily plant-available P required to achieve near maximum yield represents the 'critical level' for that crop grown on that...

The New Farming Systems (NFS) research project is being undertaken on a sandy loam soil at Morley (Norfolk, UK). The programme is funded by The Morley Agricultural Foundation and The JC Mann Trust. The research is a series of large scale, long term, replicated experiments. The project is examining how we might improve the sustainability, stability...

Studies on soil tillage and the associated impacts on crop productivity and soil quality have generally been performed on single sites and frequently over a limited number of seasons; this means sites have had insufficient time to develop and restricts the value of comparisons and conclusions. We overcome this in an AHDB/HGCA funded project that st...

The New Farming Systems (NFS) research project is being undertaken at Morley (Norfolk, UK) and is funded by The Morley Agricultural Foundation and The J C Mann Trust. The research is carried out on a sandy loam soil and consists of a series of large scale, long term, replicated experiments. The project aims to explore ways of reducing the footprint...

Figure 1. The impact of cultivation approach on margin over years 1-6 of the STAR project. Base margin data is calculated on 'spot prices' for each season. Data is presented as the percentage response in each individual season; that is each cultivation approach is expressed as a percentage of the mean return for each season. 413-2 Farming systems r...

In the context of rising global food demand, productive farming systems have never been more important. However, in future production scenarios it is likely inputs will become increasingly restricted and energy more expensive. The New Farming Systems (NFS) study (funded by the The Morley Agricultural Foundation (TMAF) and The JC Mann Trust) being c...

The STAR project (Sustainability Trial in Arable Rotations) is a long term rotation study initiated in 2005 at Stanaway Farm, Otley, Suffolk, on a Beccles/Hanslope series soil. The research is funded though the Felix Thornley Cobbold Trust and delivered through NIAB TAG. The trial is fully replicated on large plots using farm scale equipment. The s...

This paper seeks to review the current knowledge on soil cultivation and its effects to both soil physical properties and consideration to soil management to optimise crop productivity and yield when using non-inversion tillage within the United Kingdom (UK). There are many terms used to describe conservation tillage, more commonly referred to with...

The management of straw residue can be a concern in non-inversion tillage systems where straw tends to be incorporated at shallow depths or left on the soil surface. This can lead to poor crop establishment because straw residue can impede or hinder crop emergence and growth. Small container-based experiments were undertaken using varying amounts o...

The area of soil disturbed using a single tine is well documented. However, modern strip tillage implements using a tine and disc design have not been assessed in the UK or in mainland Europe. Using a strip tillage implement has potential benefits for European agriculture where economic returns and sustainability are key issues. Using a strip tilla...