The continuing value of long-term field experiments: insights for achieving food security and environmental integrity

Long-term experiments are one vital tool for studying the impacts of agricultural management practices on soil properties and crop production; however, they have several limitations that must be recognized. Such experiments are resources for research – not museum exhibits that can never be altered. For example, in the Broadbalk Wheat Experiment (started 1843), the original large plots have been split so that additional cropping systems can be studied, in particular wheat grown in a crop rotation in addition to the original monoculture.