DOK-Langzeit-Versuch

Summary

In 1974, the Swiss Federal Office of Agriculture (BLW) charged the former Federal Research Station for Agricultural Chemistry and Hygiene of Environment (FAC, Bern-Liebefeld) to set up a field trial in collaboration with the FiBL in order to compare the performance of organic farming systems.When FAC-Liebefeld was shut down, the Swiss Federal Research Station for Agroecology and Agriculture (FAL-Reckenholz) took over the responsibility for the DOK trial in close cooperation with FiBL.
The DOK-long term trial - unique in its conception - compares the consequences of bio-organic, bio-dynamic and conventional farming systems in a randomised plot trial that has no other equivalent. Experimental samples are used by many other laboratories to develop new methods in the areas of soil and food quality.
The strategies of fertilization and plant protection are the main differences between the systems, whereas crop rotation and soil tillage were almost identical.
The area where the DOK-trial is located, is documented to have long been in use as arable land (1957–1973 ley rotation, 1973–1975 field legumes and cereals, 1976 oats). In May 1977 the whole area was sown with grass-clover, and in the spring of 1978 the field experiment began with potatoes, spring wheat and spring barley.