Sustainability of long-term organic ley/arable crop rotations in Northern Scotland

Summary

This paper describes aspects of sustainability linked to four long-term organic ley/arable rotations split between two contrasting sites in Northern Scotland. The two sites (one in Aberdeen and the other near Inverness) started their organic conversion in 1991, with one rotation being common to both sites (50% grass / clover), while the Aberdeen site also had a 67% grass / clover rotation and the Inverness site a 38% grass / clover rotation. By measuring physical and financial outputs, and changes in soil properties and weed populations, the trials described here aimed to compare the productivity and sustainability of different organically-managed crop rotations. This paper outlines some of the key findings of these experiments.