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Project NUE-Leg (Nitrogen Utilisation Efficiency Legumes)

Project NUE-Leg is a major UK Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) on-farm trial and research project looking to eliminate the dependence of UK grassland farming on applied nitrogen fertilisers.

Home / Project NUE-Leg (Nitrogen Utilisation Efficiency Legumes)

Project NUE-Leg is a major UK Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) on-farm trial and research project looking to eliminate the dependence of UK grassland farming on applied nitrogen fertilisers.

About the Project

Project NUE-Leg is a collaboration between industry, plant breeders, nutritionists and biologists to achieve improvements in the capacities of legumes, such as white and red clovers, in combination with soil microbes, to fix nitrogen from the air and make this available to grasslands.

The project aims to create the conditions in a commercial farm setting that will enable clover to fix up to 300 kg of nitrogen per hectare per year, a large portion of which will be available for grass growth. At these levels, additional chemical nitrogen fertilisers needed for grass growth can largely be eliminated.

“This is a major step for­ward in help­ing min­imise car­bon foot­prints, reduc­ing reliance on chem­i­cal fer­tilis­er inputs, decreas­ing methane out­puts of live­stock as well as increas­ing the envi­ron­men­tal effi­cien­cy of for­age legume-grass crop­ping sys­tems.” — Dan Steven­son, IFM Manager

Project Partners

The project brings together scientific expertise and global leaders in plant breeding and soil microbiology, agronomy, carbon emissions and the farming and food supply chain including:

We are also working with a number of our Demonstration Farms (see below) and Innovation Centres, and will be hosting a number of events both online and in-person throughout the next few years to share best practice (through Integrated Farm Management) and inspiring ideas for the future, based around NUE-Legumes!

Introducing our Project Farmers

Tre­nance Dairy Farm — Katie and Kevin Hoare

Katie and Kevan Hoare are ten­ant farm­ers, run­ning a dairy and beef enter­prise in Corn­wall. They run a rel­a­tive­ly inten­sive 3‑week graz­ing rota­tion on drought prone soil and use organ­ic fer­tilis­ers wher­ev­er pos­si­ble, includ­ing slur­ry diges­tate, to main­tain the health of their grass­land along with reg­u­lar soil sampling. 

Key rea­sons for tak­ing part:

- To prove that legumes can with­stand reg­u­lar grazing 

- Show how legumes can effec­tive­ly reduce drought stress and soil degradation

- Build farm resilience to increas­ing­ly extreme weath­er events

Great Wol­las­ton Farm — Rob Kynaston

Rob Kynas­ton is Farm Man­ag­er at Great Wol­las­ton, a 242 mixed fam­i­ly fam­i­ly farm on the English/​Welsh bor­der, com­pris­ing 120 dairy cows and arable land. Rob is pas­sion­ate about sus­tain­abil­i­ty and utilis­es home-grown crops for the dairy herd’s for­age. The farm is also home to sky­larks, finch­es, yel­lowham­mers, which are attract­ed by sen­si­tive­ly man­aged wood­lands, wildlife cor­ri­dors, ponds and field margins. 

Key rea­sons for tak­ing part:

- To under­stand how dif­fer­ent legumes can increase pro­tein lev­els in silage 

- Reduce the farms over­all reliance on fertilisers 

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” ‑Hen­ry Ford
LEAF Demon­stra­tion Farm profile

Ren­ner Farm­ing — John and Char­lie Renner

John and Char­lie Ren­ner farm North Bell­shill and Amer­side Hill, mixed farms locat­ed between Berwick-upon-Tweed and Alnwick, bor­der­ing the edge of Northum­ber­land Nation­al Park. The farms extend to 202 hectares and focus on live­stock farm­ing, includ­ing a herd of Aberdeen Angus suck­ler cows and Tex­el and Suf­folk ewes. The Ren­ner fam­i­ly have a strong tra­di­tion of com­bin­ing envi­ron­men­tal care with sound, prac­ti­cal farm­ing that runs right through the business. 

Key rea­sons for tak­ing part:

- To become the most sus­tain­able grass-fed beef farm­ers in the country!

- See whether the new legume species will enable pro­tein pel­lets to be removed from the cat­tle’s diets

“Grass pro­tein con­ver­sion is key to a more prof­itable beef rear­ing busi­ness. We hope that Project NUE-Leg will help us to improve our efficiencies.”
LEAF Demon­stra­tion Farm profile

Leck­ford Estate- Andrew Ferguson

Andrew Fer­gu­son is Gen­er­al Man­ag­er of the Leck­ford Estate. The Estate, which is part of the John Lewis Part­ner­ship, is a regen­er­a­tive busi­ness work­ing in har­mo­ny with nature across its 2,800 acres. Their aim is to restore the land­scape so that the Estate can be a place to live, work and enjoy now and in the future.

Key rea­sons for tak­ing part:

- To get a bet­ter under­stand­ing of the most effec­tive way legumes can be used in the cur­rent crop rota­tion (to feed 551 head of cattle) 

- Increase the soil organ­ic mat­ter avail­able to cash crops

LEAF Demon­stra­tion Farm profile

Keep up to date with all things Project NUE-Leg via our IFM Quarterly magazine (exclusive to LEAF members), eBrief and on social media. Plus, look out for lots of inspiring events throughout the year!