Tour B4, 30 June: Tour leaders: Niels Damsgaard Hansen Freelance journalist, former editor-in-chief at FBG Medier Hanne Gregersen Freelance journalist Comparison between growing systems in an extensive project with large test plots GRObund is the name of a unique project funded by Syngenta and led by Seg - es, the Danish Agriculture & Food Council’s center of knowledge. The project studies and compares practical issues with regard to three growing systems: 1) conventional cropping (with ploughing), 2) reduced tillage, and 3) Conser - vation Agriculture (CA). This is a project of unprecedented scope with a setup that has never before been used in Denmark. Each of the three host farms has 36 five-hectare test plots, says project 17 leader Annette V. Vestergaard, national adviser at Seges. The test plots have three different treatments in each of the three different growing systems, and four repeats in order to achieve the best statistic confidence. The time scale of the project must be sufficient to illustrate differences between the systems in the same test plots over the whole project’s life. The farmers and their advisers are in charge of managing the plots. They choose everything, including varieties, spraying and fertilisation. Everything is registered in addition to data regarding soil health, pests, beneficial insects, diseases, yields, machinery economics and, of course, overall economics. The unique element is that systems and not individual factors will be com - pared to each other. Normally, individual factors, such as ploughing with harrowing and direct drilling are studied. In this project, so many factors are involved that it is the growing systems that are compared instead of the effects of indi - vidual factors, such as catch crops, tillage, or straw residue strate- gies. Annette V. Vestergaard (left) and Niels-Erik Halgaard (right) by the advanced camera with sensors that identify and register insects moving around within camera range in the test plots. After the above-mentioned visits we will continue to the annual farm fair Landsskuet in Herning. See page 14.
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