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Not many universities have their own commercial farm on campus.

But here at ÎÞÂ붯»­, staff and students are able to learn ‘in the field’ at the Future Farm.

Did you know the Future Farm produces a monthly newsletter?

Offering the latest news from across the farm, it’s a great way to keep up with some of the excellent work our team are doing!

The latest version is below, and you can read each newsletter – and much, much more – at the

Future Farm Update 

Globally and locally we find ourselves at a critical point that demands changes to our food system.

In response the Future Farm is focusing on what we can do to make a difference on food security, biodiversity and a low carbon future. Whilst in many ways we are at the beginning of that journey we also have the benefit of nearly 125 years' farm history of meeting and responding to the challenges presented.

This past year has seen the launch of our Future Farm Strategy to 2030.

The strategy has been created by the farm management staff, relevant stakeholders from teaching, research and environment sustainability farm groups. It sets out the ambitions for Future Farm on a five-year timescale. It aims to strike a balance between setting a path that is clear and farsighted and being responsive and adaptable in the face of uncertainties facing agriculture and the environment.

The strategy document can be found on our improved, continually evolving farm

There is also an increasing amount of information about the farm and its activities available on the website.

We are now working with Map of Ag to create a farm dashboard accessible to all which will show headline figures for each sector but also allow access to all the data collected on the farm, a huge project!

In our carbon reduction journey our net CO₂ equivalent emissions have reduced in intensity by 12 per cent year on year.

Sector Updates 

Dairy

In a bid to lower carbon footprint and improve economic resilience the main dairy changed to three times a day milking during the year with lactation yields continuing to increase to over 12,500l per cow.

We are breeding a small procross herd within the herd with the aim to improve efficiency from the hybrid vigour.

We continue to make use of sensors to aid decision making and improve welfare. In terms of building development, a new cattle handling area has been completed allowing safe and efficient handling of animals for student groups.

We have installed ECV fans in the cubicle house and straw yards, more brushes and installed rubber matting in the collecting yard to aid cow comfort. Successful trials continued this year using No Fence collars on replacement dairy heifers for precision grazing.

Finally, earlier this month, the Dairy Unit won the RABDF Gold Cup – a historic achievement and a credit to the efforts of the whole team.

Congratulations ?? to our Gold Cup winners ÎÞÂ붯»­! What a phenomenal team doing amazing things!

— National Milk Records (NMR) (@NMRgroup)

Pigs and Poultry

In the past year there has been a real focus on trialling lower carbon footprint diets by reducing protein content, using alternative proteins and changing to meal-based diets. There has been great success in reducing protein content and using alternative proteins without compromising performance of the animals, with up to 17 per cent carbon reductions in certain diets. The move from pellets to meal has not proved as successful, whilst the carbon footprint of the diet reduced the physical performance of the pigs reduced which led to an increase in net emissions. This really highlights the need for trialling changes to evidence any proposed benefits. The pig unit performance continues to improve, with the unit winning the herd productivity award at the National Pig Awards - again a credit to the hard work of the pig team.

The current poultry unit remains set up as a research unit but plans are now progressing to develop a commercial flock which will also provide a useful teaching facility.

Beef and Sheep

This year the comparison of indoor and outdoor finishing for beef cattle started assessing the relative performance and carbon impact of each system, with the hypothesis that well managed high-performance grazing based animals would have similar net emissions to our already efficient indoor finished animals. We are in the second year of the Breed4Change program, monitoring emissions and performance with the ultimate aim of producing low emission and efficient ewes and progeny.

Crops and Operations

Weather once again has presented challenges during the past year. Following a very wet 2023, with over 1000mm of rain versus our average of 680mm, 2024 continued the trend with over 800mm recorded.

Remarkably wheat and spring barley yields were slightly above our ten-year average at 8.65t/ha and 6.4t/ha respectively, with the majority of the spring barley being low input as part of our stewardship agreement.

Oilseed rape was a disaster with a combination of flooded fields and flea beetle damage giving us a 2t/ha average, the only positive was to use the flooded areas, when they dried, as nesting sites for lapwing in the spring for our stewardship scheme. Due to the weather our move no-till has been set back with the use of the plough resurrected where needed to enable crop establishment. A new SFI scheme was entered, and an additional application will go in this year with the extended offer now available. The focus on utilising organic manures from the livestock continues with further work into nutrient stripping of slurries to allow precision applications also continues.

The first small crop of grapes, a year sooner than planned, has been harvested and processed and hopefully better weather this year will give us a good first full crop. We continue to add value to our meat from the farm by selling a proportion directly to consumers and with the creation of the Harper Food Innovation Group this will develop apace along with other farm produce.