Rothamsted

Rothamsted Discover the science of feeding the world! at a molecular level) as well as from their interactions with the environment (e.g. with air, soil, water etc.).

Established in 1843, our mission is to deliver the knowledge and new practices to increase crop productivity and quality and to develop environmentally sustainable solutions for food and bioenergy production. This is delivered through a comprehensive scientific strategy that uses a dynamic and integrated approach to crop science, allowing us to study plants from within (e.g. This strategy is deliv

ered through four interdependent programmes:
• 20:20 Wheat: Increasing wheat productivity to yield 20 tonnes per hectare in 20 years TM Designing seeds
• Designing Seeds: Harnessing our expertise in seed biology and biochemistry to deliver improved health and nutrition through seeds Delivering sustainable systems
• Cropping Carbon: Designing, modelling and assessing sustainable agricultural systems that increase productivity while minimising environmental impact
• Sustainable Systems: Optimising carbon capture by grasslands and perennial energy crops, such as Willow, to help underpin the UK's transition to a low carbon economy

These programmes are underpinned by four national capabilities:
• North Wyke (Devon) Farm Platform: a 250ha experimental farming system where inputs and outputs can be accurately measured in situ.
• The long-term experiments, sample archive and eRA database: running since the mid-19th century and provide a unique experimental system and archive.
• The Insect Survey: operates two national networks for monitoring insect populations in the UK.
• PHI-base: is a database of multiple pathogen-host interactions maintained at Rothamsted Research with considerable input from the international community. Rothamsted Research is truly unique, offering:
• 170 years’ experience of delivering agricultural science and innovation.
• extensive international and multi-sector collaborative networks developed over many years.
• a truly multi-disciplinary workforce, bringing together knowledge from many different fields.
• the ability to combine detailed laboratory studies (using state-of-the-art scientific equipment) with extensive fieldwork (over 700 ha of experimental land) all within a single facility.

Nice to see our willow team in action at Woodoaks Farm!
27/03/2025

Nice to see our willow team in action at Woodoaks Farm!

Our next Café Scientifique promises to be out of this world 🌟 Join astrophysicist Dr Calum Morris on 15th April at The H...
19/03/2025

Our next Café Scientifique promises to be out of this world 🌟 Join astrophysicist Dr Calum Morris on 15th April at The Harpenden Arms pub!

New paper: Smart Roots - Plants are able to modify their root hydraulics to maintain water status . When soils are dryin...
19/03/2025

New paper: Smart Roots - Plants are able to modify their root hydraulics to maintain water status . When soils are drying, plants can decrease water use from topsoil whilst boosting uptake at greater depths. Conversely, when topsoil is rewetted, the plants can instantly rearrange their water uptake to be more energy efficient by making maximum use of water near the surface and reducing uptake lower down.
Full story: https://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/news/smart-roots-make-strategic-use-water
(image: Shutterstock)

Can't make our Café Scientifique's in person? We've just posted a full recording of Andy Gregory's talk 'Rothamsted Long...
14/03/2025

Can't make our Café Scientifique's in person? We've just posted a full recording of Andy Gregory's talk 'Rothamsted Long Term Experiments, From 19th Century Trials to 21st Century Science' on our YouTube. Watch now👇

The Rothamsted Long-Term Experiments, established by Lawes and Gilbert, are world-renowned and are as important to scientists now as they ever have been. Joi...

It’s and we want to celebrate all our scientists conducting field work in this very British weather ☀️🌧️❄️
13/03/2025

It’s and we want to celebrate all our scientists conducting field work in this very British weather ☀️🌧️❄️

New policy brief with partners Pasture for Life: Research funding should prioritise scientists and livestock farmers wor...
13/03/2025

New policy brief with partners Pasture for Life: Research funding should prioritise scientists and livestock farmers working more closely together on co-designed, co-delivered farm-level research projects.
The joint brief says that evaluation of what constitutes the best use of land for sustainable food production requires farm-level research based on the place-particular conditions prevalent in the UK. The brief offers a vision and practical measures that take forward place-based research.
Read the full story: https://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/news/more-funding-scientist-farmer-collaborative-research-farm-level-key-delivering-sustainable-uk

Tomorrow! How can we know what landscapes looked like thousands of years ago? Unearth the answers at our next Café Scien...
12/03/2025

Tomorrow! How can we know what landscapes looked like thousands of years ago? Unearth the answers at our next Café Scientifique with external speaker Lexi Diggins.

Free and open to all, join us at the Harpenden Arms on March 13th.

Today we celebrated with impactful talks and discussions, it's clear we've made a lot of progress but still more work ...
12/03/2025

Today we celebrated with impactful talks and discussions, it's clear we've made a lot of progress but still more work to be done to support .

Thank you to our speakers:
Caty Batten - Co-founder of Intaconnected
Frances Holmes - CEO of Speak Out Revolution
Mary Quicke MBE & her daughter Jane Langdon-Davies - Managers of Quicke's Cheese
Professor Lin Field CBE - Insect molecular biologist and Professor Emerita at Rothamsted

In the UK, we've been monitoring insect populations for hundreds of years- so what have we found out?Watch now:
12/03/2025

In the UK, we've been monitoring insect populations for hundreds of years- so what have we found out?

Watch now:

The UK has an unmatched collection of data that records how insect numbers are changing over time. In this video, the DRUID project (Drivers and Repercussion...

Another fabulous PhD Symposium! Well done to all that presented their research and to the following winners as voted for...
07/03/2025

Another fabulous PhD Symposium! Well done to all that presented their research and to the following winners as voted for by the student community:

🏅Best Placement Student Poster – Barbora Novakova - Harnessing microbial volatiles for fungal pathogen management
🏅Best 1st Year Poster – Genevieve Kiero-Watson - Improving and understanding British dung beetles in livestock systems
🏅Best 2nd Year Poster and 2 minute Talk – Jade Smith - Epigenetic control of effector proteins secreted by Fusarium Graminearum
🏅Best 3rd Year Poster and 5 minute Talk – Anusha Mohan-Kumar - Semiochemical-based alternative concepts for the management of wireworms
🏅Best Final Year Talk – Apple Espino - A food systems approach to increasing wheat’s potential in delivering healthy diets, food security and nutrition in the UK

A huge thank you to Donna Fellowes for organising another successful event 👏

How can we know what landscapes looked like thousands of years ago? Unearth the answers at our next Café Scientifique wi...
06/03/2025

How can we know what landscapes looked like thousands of years ago? Unearth the answers at our next Café Scientifique with external speaker Lexi Diggins.

Free and open to all, join us at the Harpenden Arms on March 13th.

Great day out at Ware Town Council Biodiversity Day at Ware Priory Event & Conference Venue on Saturday. Lots of interes...
04/03/2025

Great day out at Ware Town Council Biodiversity Day at Ware Priory Event & Conference Venue on Saturday. Lots of interest in our our new soil exhibit from Amalgam Modelmaking showing how different ways of farming deliver different benefits...through the medium of marbles!

Africa’s grasslands face increasing challenges from climate change, threatening the livelihoods of millions across the c...
19/02/2025

Africa’s grasslands face increasing challenges from climate change, threatening the livelihoods of millions across the continent. Urgent action is needed to future-proof these ecosystems, according to a new commentary published in Nature Communications by scientists from the Global Farm Platform.
Introducing more multispecies swards could benefit millions of smallholders and pastoralists, say the authors.
Full story: https://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/news/african-grasslands-need-become-more-climate-change-resilient
(image Shutterstock)

Thank you to all that attended our soil carbon workshop, plenty of important discussions had about regenerative agricult...
14/02/2025

Thank you to all that attended our soil carbon workshop, plenty of important discussions had about regenerative agriculture. It was great to share data from our long term experiments that can improve the ways we care for soil.

New study: Fungal toxin helps Fusarium head blight infiltrate plant cells and could be a potential target for disease co...
14/02/2025

New study: Fungal toxin helps Fusarium head blight infiltrate plant cells and could be a potential target for disease control.
Using advanced bioimaging techniques, the study found that the toxin enables the pathogen to traverse these cellular gateways, a process essential for widespread colonisation. When the research team deleted a specific gene which encodes an enzyme that is responsible for a key step in toxin production, the fungal spread was significantly restricted, limiting infection to the initially infected spikelet.
Full story: https://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/news/fungal-toxin-underpins-wheat-disease-spread

Thank you to all that attended our last Café Scientifique on microbial matters with Dr Adriana Torres-Ballesteros! Our n...
13/02/2025

Thank you to all that attended our last Café Scientifique on microbial matters with Dr Adriana Torres-Ballesteros!

Our next one will be with external speaker Lexi Diggins on March 13th - unearthing the science of environmental archaeology ⛏️

New paper: novel seed germination model will give breeders more predictive accuracy for seed development and growth.The ...
13/02/2025

New paper: novel seed germination model will give breeders more predictive accuracy for seed development and growth.
The new tool is derived from field data and marks a significant improvement in accuracy over previous models. Germination models use water and temperature as the main drivers of seed activity. Currently these are based largely on water potential, which is the energy that drives water to move from one system to another. This is challenging to define accurately in the field. The new model uses water content which is much easier to measure.
Full story: https://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/news/new-seed-germination-model-devised

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Videos

Thinking about a STEM career? Hear from Annalisa, a PhD scientist, and Vasthi, a research scientist, on advice they would give their 18 year old self. This International Day of Women & Girls in Science we are celebrating all of our scientists at different stages in their STEM career! What advice would you give your younger self? #WomenInScience #FEBRUARY11

Our cows in Devon are wearing the finest Heifer Couture, these fashionable and functional accessories help us conduct research into the environmental impact of livestock farming. Check out their Outfit Of The Day 📽️ Find out more: www.rothamsted.ac.uk/national-capability/north-wyke-farm-platform #OOTD #farming #devon

Our sediment sleuths are digging up the past to help make farming more resilient in the future, here's how 👇📽️ Using soil cores, field trials, and computer modelling, Resilient Farming Futures aims to understand the resilience of agriculture production to future ecosystem stresses. Find out more here: https://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/project/resilient-farming-futures #agriculture #soil

3, 2, 1, BAKE! We're looking for a perfect crumb and no soggy bottoms in the Rothamsted tent this #WorldSoilDay...Follow our recipe for a perfect soil 👇

Meet Gwen 🐄 one of the residents of Britain's most-measured farm. She helps our scientists in Devon find out whether we can farm beef and dairy more sustainably. Watch her new moo-vie now👇 🎞️Created by TomLawSays #STEMDay #farming #agriculture #devon

Swarming midges are attracted towards the centre of the group and repelled by one another in almost equal measure, according to a new study. This pattern of behaviour maximises breeding success by attracting mates. Even when a female enters the swarm, and is pursued by a male, the swarm keeps its shape. Individuals may be drawn towards her, but this force of attraction is weaker than the negative "impulse" for the males to stay away from each other. Read more: https://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/news/midges-keep-their-distance #entomology #insects #physics

It's #NationalPastaDay 🍝Why is '00' Grade flour so good for making pasta? Why does dough need to rest? There are no fu-silli questions when it comes to the science of pasta! #pasta #wheat

To celebrate #UKFungusDay, why not see what spores are in the air around you? Here's how to set up a simple spore trap... UK Fungus Day - The flagship outreach of the British Mycological Society

There's something in the air...and our scientists are investigating every spore 🔍 Using spore-trapping devices, we hope to inform farmers about what's in their fields so they can make informed decisions when harvesting crops and using fungicides.

What could the future of pest management look like? Instead of shooting insecticides all over the field, Sam Cook suggests lasers instead… Machine learning could help identify pests and their natural enemies in the field, reducing the use of insecticides. Find out more 📽️ #IPM #agriculture #farming

In celebration of the 9th Resistance Conference at Rothamsted this week, we’re taking a look at the agricultural science of the past, present, and future tackling pesticide use. Did you know that the insecticides you might find in your mosquito repellent and flea treatments were discovered here at Rothamsted? Andrew Farnham explains his role in the development of synthetic pyrethroids… #Resistance2024 #pesticides #agriculture #farming

How are scientists creating a MAGIC oilseed rape population? It doesn’t involve a wand and a top hat… Dr Mollie Langdon explains 📽️ Scientists at Rothamsted Research and the John Innes Centre are breeding thousands of OSR plants to better understand their genetics – that’s MAGIC (Multi-Parent Advanced Generation Inter-Cross). This research will be used to build a community resource of genetic traits which will help inform farmers to grow OSR more sustainably. #OSR #agriculture #farming #agronomy #genomics

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Our Story

We are world-leading, non-profit research centre that focuses on agricultural science to benefit the environment, farmers and society worldwide. Our work addresses food security, malnutrition, poverty, climate change and the environment. Our people are experts in their field and come from all areas of the globe.

We are home to three unique National Capabilities that are open to researchers from all over the world; The Long Term Experiments, Rothamsted Insect Survey, North Wyke Farm Platform for grazing-livestock systems research.

Rothamsted Research is the oldest continually operating agricultural research station in the world. Its foundation dates from 1843 when John Bennet Lawes the owner of the Rothamsted estate appointed Joseph Henry Gilbert, a chemist as his scientific collaborator.