The NCS Project – Project Partners

PGRO is the UK’s centre of excellence for peas and beans, with an extensive track record of providing authoritative, up to date information and research. PGRO is a non-statutory levy body supported by grower members and the UK trade, undertaking commercial and publicly funded research in partnership with UK, European and global research bodies and commercial organisations. PGRO will manage the consortium and provide supporting data management and dissemination of outputs. With BOFIN and ADAS, PGRO will provide leadership for the Pulse Performance Enhancement Platform (PEP) knowledge sharing hub, provide historic data, support on-going Pulse YENs, trials and measurements, collation and analysis of data, supporting 10 case studies and grower recruitment. PGRO will lead a review of the wider agronomic and environmental implications of increasing pulses in the rotation.

PGRO is the UK’s centre of excellence for peas and beans, with an extensive track record of providing authoritative, up to date information and research. PGRO is a non-statutory levy body supported by grower members and the UK trade, undertaking commercial and publicly funded research in partnership with UK, European and global research bodies and commercial organisations. 

PGRO is the project lead partner and manages the consortium, providing supporting data management and dissemination of outputs. With BOFIN and ADAS, PGRO provides support for the Pulse Performance Enhancement Platform (PEP) knowledge sharing hub, providing historic data, supporting on-going Pulse YENs, trials and measurements, collating and analysing data, supporting grower case studies, and helping to engage growers in trials and research.

As well as providing overall management of the project, PGRO manages work package 3, in which the Experimental Platforms are evaluating nitrogen use efficiency in arable and vegetable rotations. The trials in this work package are focused on measurement of benefits that pulses provide in rotations, including N provision to following crops, greenhouse gas emissions, and soil health benefits. N-sensing technology available from Plant Bioscience Ltd. is being evaluated alongside traditional soil sampling for soil mineral N levels.

The British On-Farm Innovation Network (BOFIN) will engage more than 200 farms in Pulse-PEP and recruit from these 40 Pulse Pioneers who will carry out on-farm trials and resonate outcomes, carried out under WP2. BOFIN will actively manage, maintain and involve the farming community, liaise with project partners to identify and recruit Pulse Pioneers and assist in identifying individual examples of good practice or innovation. Annual face-to-face workshops or Ideas Labs will generate and develop ideas for on-farm trials, resulting in Farmer Innovation Groups (FIGs), each of around 10 Pulse Pioneers, who work with Project Partners to establish trial protocols and carry out the trials. All of the Pulse Pioneers will be visited during the course of the project with their facilities and resources used for the trials reviewed and summarised into brief reports.

ADAS are the leader of WP2, which aims to 1) support the arable crop production of pulses in the UK and 2) collect farm level data to further understand the potential benefits of pulses in rotations on commercial farms.

As part of the NCS project, ADAS will coordinate the research aims and facilitate the standardisation of data collection of arable case studies and historic data within WP2 to help fill project relevant knowledge gaps and maximise how data can be brought together for use in other project activities, such as life cycle assessment of different crop successions (WP1) and economic modelling of cropping sequence scenarios (WP3). They will develop the knowledge platform “www.Farmpep.net” to support a digital Pulse Enhancement Platform (PulsePEP) where farmers, industry and researchers can find pulse production and usage knowledge that is connected across many different sources. They will also develop the Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) to enable data exchange for rotational benchmarking, enabling farmers to submit data and compare metrics for yield, productivity, GHGs and NUE. This data will feed into analysis in other WPs.

ADAS will also share messages to support Pulse crop performance, supporting Ideas Labs to generate and distil ideas and cropping practice change to be tested in case studies. The YENs will also be used to help monitor the case studies carried out by Pulse Pioneers.

ADAS is the UK’s largest independent provider of agricultural and environmental consultancy, policy advice and research and development, with extensive expertise in food production and the natural environment. With 75 years of experience in the farming and environmental sector, ADAS translates science into workable solutions for farmers, landowners, businesses, and government. Leading the way in environmental research. 

LEAF’s involvement within the NCS project is focused on farmer recruitment. We have a strong engagement with farmers and growers, both through our social media platforms and our members. We have and continue to share a range of content regarding the project, promoting farmer sign-ups to become Pulse Pioneers, as well as information further regarding the project. Our website now has a dedication section to the project, as well as being featured in our quarterly magazine which is circulated industry wide.

Agrii’s involvement in the NCS project is through close monitoring and assessments conducted in small plot trials. Our aim is to assess the beneficial effects of pulse and legume crops on successive non-leguminous crops, such as cereals, across the rotation. Our trials will utilise real-time soil sensors to determine nitrogen availability during crop rotations and we will closely monitor these through RHIZA remote sensing capabilities and via drone flight software, Skippy Scout. We want to understand more about improved farm efficiency opportunities and optimised crop fertilisation approaches.
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We will also focus on looking at the nitrogen output and growing regimes of novel crops such as chickpeas, lupins and haricot beans which farmers may look to as alternatives crops to grow for human consumption or as an additional protein source for their livestock rations.

For 40 years Kelvin Cave Ltd has focussed on supporting farmers make the best use of their home-grown feeds offering a range of scientifically proven preservatives for forage and cereals, grain processing equipment, clamp management products as well as providing practical and technical support. In recent years, we have been working with a growing number of farmers who saw proteins as the weak link in the diet and wished to apply the same philosophy to protein crops rather than relying on imported straights or processed compounds and blends. This removes some of the price volatility, retains complete control and reduces the carbon footprint by shortening the supply chain (can provide links to case studies if you feel it’s appropriate).  

Our involvement in the NCS project allows us to accelerate progress and let the science catch up with the anecdotal evidence we have already gathered. Specifically, we will be looking at the harvesting efficiency of different forager headers, as field losses in wholecrop legumes has been a big obstacle to wider uptake. We will also be subcontracting detailed wet chemistry analytical work and lab-scale preservative trials to independent silage expert Dr Dave Davies.

Cranfield University has world-class facilities for soil research including two of the four UK Government-sponsored Agri-tech Centres: Agri-Epi (Agricultural Engineering Precision Innovation Centre) and CHaP (Crop Health and Protection), with over £13 million of new infrastructure since 2017; the Wolfson Field Laboratory for studies of soil carbon and gas emissions; and one of the UKCRIC Urban Observatories. We are the UK National Reference Centre for soil, and hold national and international soil reference data and samples in the Land Information System (LandIS) and the World Soil Survey and Archive Catalogue (WOSSAC). We also host the NERC Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM).

The Cranfield Experimental Platform will identify the mechanisms and resilience of soils for GHG emission reduction, linking nitrogen and carbon cycling, and benefits to soil health where legumes have been included in crop rotations as cash and/or cover crops. We will use an experimental platform of soil planted with legume and cereal crops, under accelerated growth conditions in a controlled glasshouse environment to investigate the interaction of N and C pools and GHG emissions and understand the plant-soil interactions resulting in improved N use efficiency, soil carbon storage potential and impacts on GHG emissions. The insights and expertise from WP2 project partners with active field trials will guide selection of appropriate crops, soil type and inorganic N requirements, so that results are transferable to a UK farming context. The experiments will be set up in controlled conditions using the Innovate UK Agri-tech centre CHAP glasshouse and additional Cranfield University laboratory facilities. Soil will be obtained from ongoing trials (WP2) with legumes already integrated into rotations as cash or cover crops. This will allow a space-for time substitution to investigate the resilience of soil under different legume types and length of rotations. The experimental platform will be a pot trial in controlled conditions to determine the changes in GHG emissions under elevated temperatures and reduced soil moisture on multiple soil types, legume type and length of rotation.

SRUC is a leader in interdisciplinary research to understand and promote change in farming and food systems. It aims to understand and engage with farmers and their influencers to precipitate beneficial change in farming systems and practices both nationally and internationally. By working in a systems context work seeks to understand economic, environmental and social sustainable land management systems in the context of international, national and local land use policies, with an emphasis on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. SRUC will synthesise existing knowledge and generate new evidence to maximise soya bean meal replacement potential of faba beans that can be used by poultry, ruminants and pigs, establish impact of current processing conditions on nutritional value of faba bean varieties in poultry, empirically assess the impact of faba bean processing on feed efficiency, SBM replacement potential, and carcass yield in growing broilers, revisit impact of optimised processing conditions on selected faba bean varieties on SID AA and AME, and synthesise key messages for end-user KTE activities based on existing knowledge, new findings, and peer reviewed publication.

McArthur BDC is a work package lead within the NCS project supporting other partners and conducting experimental, on farm bean processing trials. As part of the experimental work, samples of beans will be dehulled using the JK Machinery JHP07 horizontal peeler, which removes the outer hull of the bean containing non-digestible fibre (NDF) and anti-nutritional factors (ANF). The beans then enter a JK Machinery JCC08 sieve cleaner to remove the hulls and are then transported to a Mecmar roaster.

The beans processed in the trials will be analysed by our academic partner, Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC). The in vitro analysis will look at improvements in nutritive value with the most promising results being progressed to digestibility and feeding trials in broilers. Trials are also being conducted in conjunction with First Milk and LC Beef Nutrition to study the potential benefits in ruminants.

The NCS project, including McArthur BDC’s work package, will provide UK farmers and policy makers with the information, guidance and evidence to help UK agriculture reduce carbon emissions by 1.5MT CO2e per annum and work towards the country’s net zero aspirations.

Staff from the Departments of ‘Ecological Sciences’ (ES) and ‘Information and Computing Services’ (ICS) lead Work Package (WP) 1 which is entitled, ‘Environmental, climate, social and economic impact evaluation’. Tasks within WP1 include the drafting and updating of the Data Management Plan that covers for all WP activities. This is to streamline data-gathering and -flow year-on-year; including gathering key methodologies. This data management effort will also assess data quality with respect to ‘FAIR-’ (findable. accessible, interoperable, and reuseable), and ‘Open Access-‘principles. These principles are fulfilled with respect to GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and background intellectual property (IP) (i.e., protection of partners IP which was established before project work had begun).

In addition, JHI will undertake Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the faba bean-based cropped system at its Centre for Sustainable Cropping. This effort will see the integration of ecosystem service (i.e., functional)-indicators and -benefits into the LCA (impact) analysis; since, any the relationship between decreased impact and enhanced function should be proven and not assumed. The LCA framework will also be applied to farmer-based trials as part of the Pulse-PEP; and used to develop a mathematical model for ‘land use risk assessment scenarios’. This model, to be called ‘CropGOBLIN’, aims to ascertain the potential of UK-wide uptake of faba bean using data captured as part of the project. 

JHI will also contribute directly to activities in WP3 which is entitled ‘Experimental platforms: nitrogen use efficiency in arable and vegetable rotations’; undertaking specific measures of greenhouse gases (GHG) and nitrogen leaching at the CSC, for faba beans and the following spring barley crop; also, JHI will provide CSC-soil for ex situ trials undertaken as Cranfield University.  

FCT was created by farmers for farmers, to further the understanding of greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture, providing tools and services to measure impact and run projects with farmers that inspire action on the ground. Chief Executive Officer, Liz Bowles, and her team will lead the work assessing the carbon impact of producing legume and pulse-based animal feeds, and increasing legumes in rotations, and the impact of feeding them in place of imported soya beans. FCT will evaluate and model toolkit data output for pulse and legume crops that is adaptable to individual farms and simplify farmer access to multiple data sources, provide historic data, aid in developing requirements for minimum data standards and support case studies with GHG tools.

The Allerton Project is involved in this project by bringing our expertise of on-farm trials and soil gas emissions.  We will focus on the mechanics of nitrous oxide emissions from soil across a number of field trials to help quantify the greenhouse gas emissions savings from legume and pulse cropping.  We will also host our own on-farm trial looking at the feasibility of bi-cropping spring oats and spring peas, as part of the projects attempt to develop novel ways of increasing profitability and productivity of pulse cropping.

ABN is the leading British manufacturer of pig and poultry compound feed, providing products and complementary solutions to the pig and poultry livestock industries. Brian Kenyon, Senior Nutrition Manager, manages the ABN nutrition team and will lead the farm-based poultry trials.

First Milk is a wholly British farmer-owned dairy co-operative with a vision of enriching life everyday to secure the future. Owned by the family farms that supply milk and invest capital in the business, FM produce award-winning cheddar, regional cheeses and dairy ingredients, as well as marketing fresh raw milk to many other UK dairy processors. First Milk, with Nestle, will explore the impact of removing imported soya from the dairy supply chain, and the implications for their dairy farm cooperative (800 farms). In partnership with members, First Milk have committed to sequestering 100,000 tonnes CO2e pa by 2025 within soils on their farms. 95% of members have signed the First4Milk Pledge, which includes a commitment to give cows access to pasture for a minimum of 120 days per year. First Milk have also committed to increase milk from forage by 10% by 2025 which will reduce the need for imported feeds.

PBL Technology invests in, protects and promotes emerging innovations from public research sources worldwide, turning ideas into patented, scientifically validated and licensable technologies. PBL establishes intellectual property protection, guides development through the proof-of-concept and prototype stage and licenses onwards to a wide variety of industry sectors. Interests cover Agriculture, Food & Nutrition, Microbiology, Biotechnology and related Life Science industries, marketing technologies internationally with regular contact with a wide range of industrial customers, licensees and development partners. Dr Lars von Borcke is the Business Development Manager for Plants and Agriculture. PBL will work with Agrii to provide digital on-farm data collection.

(with Anglian Water as an associate partner): Catchment management began in 2005 and involves working with farmers and landowners within the catchment areas of public water supply boreholes and reservoirs to safeguard the quality of ground and surface waters. WW’s catchment management objective is to stabilise and reduce the levels of contaminant at each source, so no additional treatment is required, working in partnership with local farmers and landowners. Wessex Water will provide historic data from trials evaluating N leaching, quantification, evaluation, and mitigation strategies.

Lizz Clarke is an independent advisor working with beef farmers throughout the UK helping to improve growth and condition in beef cattle through nutrition. Lizz will lead the farm-based beef trials for calves, growers and finishers.