ADAS has launched a new crop rotation planning tool, aimed at helping growers assess the benefits and trade-offs before making any cropping changes.
The tool will have a strong environmental focus, but will also highlight the financial benefits of different crop rotation choices, with a specific focus on peas and beans, according to the UK-based agricultural and environmental consultancy.
Based on data from hundreds of commercially grown crops, the tool estimates how a change in rotation will impact farm greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, gross margins, nitrogen balance, and overall energy and protein output.
The tool was created as part of the Nitrogen Climate Smart (NCS) project, a farmer-led initiative to increase UK pulse cropping area to 20%.
Dr. Pete Berry, head of crop physiology at ADAS and co-developer of the tool, said: “The Crop Planner tool is a small part of a wider effort to help growers decide whether to include pulses in their rotation.
“The environmental benefits of pulses are well known, but introducing them can feel risky for those who have never grown pulses before.
“We hope this tool will give those farmers a better insight into the potential environmental benefits and cost implications, and the confidence to make a change if suitable.”
While the new tool has built with arable farmers very much in mind, there is a strong belief that it could support policy-makers in assessing trade-offs between farm profitability and sustainability.
“Farmers and advisers can explore how changes to crop choices affect their rotational performance, whilst policymakers can use it to better understand the trade-offs between sustainability, food security, and farm-gate economics,” Dr. Berry added.
Resource for growers
The UK farming charity LEAF has welcomed the new crop planning tool as a practical and accessible resource for growers seeking to make more sustainable yet financially sound decisions.
Dan Stevenson, LEAF’s Head of Sustainable Farming said: “Farmers are keen to explore different management approaches that reduce environmental impact and inputs, but they require robust decision-making tools to reduce the associated risks.”
He added that by bringing together information on emissions, margins, and nitrogen balance in one place, the Crop Planner tool “supports more informed, whole-rotation decision-making and can help farmers identify opportunities to improve both efficiency and environmental performance”.
“Few easily accessible tools can analyse the performance of whole rotations,” Stevenson continued.
“So making use of historic data for this purpose shows the huge value to be gained from sharing information for the good of the industry.”