Increasing the productivity of an upland pasture with the least environmental impacts

The environmental impacts of increasing pasture productivity in the United Kingdom’s (UK) uplands is under-researched. A field trial on a representative upland farm investigated the effect of implementing pasture improvement options on unimproved land between 2017 and 2019. The options were cultivation (ploughing and rotovating) and reseeding in combination with lime and fertiliser inputs. Soil pH, grass growth, pasture quality and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from soil were measured throughout the growing seasons. Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions were also measured from cultivation until pasture establishment in 2017. In the year of establishment, reseeding and increased nitrogen (N) fertiliser application led to greater daily grass growth, with the mean over two times greater from the ploughed and reseeded treatment (20.0 kg DM ha−1 day−1) as opposed to the control (8.2 kg DM ha−1 day−1) during the growing season (p