Contract Period : 01/06/2026 - 31/05/2028
Main Funder : Funded by ADOPT, part of Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme, delivered in partnership with Innovate UK.
ORC Staff Contact : Dr Lindsay Whistance
Building English Shelterbelt Trials for Productivity (BEST) is an ADOPT-funded, farmer-led trial investigating the benefits to livestock systems from the presence of improved hedgerow/windbreaks.
These windbreaks have been planted considering key attributes of direction, length, height, profile and porosity. As the windbreaks mature, height, profile and porosity will be measured overtime to better understand their impacts on microclimate and soil conditions as well as crop and animal outcomes. In-field weather station data and changes in shelterbelt attributes across seasons and years will be used to help develop a guide for on-farm management to support the maintenance of optimal shelter. Porosity will be measured using optical porosity and images from mobile phones and drones will be compared for their suitability. Field measures will focus on forage crops (pasture herbage) growth and recovery and appropriate animal measures include health, yield and liveweight gain. The knowledge gained will be used to demonstrate how shelter can be incorporated into food production systems, how optimal shelter can be achieved and maintained, how this shelter influences and animal and crop outcomes and how the presence of shelterbelts can contribute to on-farm carbon capture
The Organic Research Centre is a research subcontractor for the project. Using multiple weather stations, ORC will collect microclimate data across farms and seasons to assess the quality and impact of shelter on microclimate measures. We will also investigate shelterbelt attributes such as height, profile and porosity to consider how these impact the quality of the shelter. These data will support the development of a guide for on-farm management of shelter belts for optimal shelter.
We’ve now conducted the first trial of the methods developed through the OSB project. This involved visiting and setting up anemometers at two farms in the Cotswolds to take periodical and continuous measurement over 24 hours. This was an initial pilot of the shelterbelt measures, as well as establishing a baseline which can be referenced back to in future years as the shelterbelts grow larger. The next steps are to analyse the data we have collected to identify microclimate characteristics, with initial findings already revealing some interesting results.
The current project focuses on livestock systems and builds on an earlier project (Optimum Shelterbelts – OSBs) where a suite of protocols were developed for different research focus areas to test the presence of shelterbelts on changes in microclimate, soil and carbon profiles as well as outcomes for livestock, crops and biodiversity.
