Research at Manor Farm
We put research at the heart of what we do on the farm, it allows us to explore the newest technology and methods to ensure we produce food and nature in the best way we can.
ADOPT : FOLIAR
FOLIAR - Foliar Optimisation for Low-Input Innovative Agricultural Resilience
This project funded by the ADOPT grant from Innovate UK, run in partnership with Pearson Gape Farming Partnership (Manor Farm Caxton), Charles Paynter, and Edward Reynolds, is exploring a more efficient way to fertilise UK wheat crops by spraying "melted" urea directly onto leaves rather than applying it to the soil.
Conventional soil-applied nitrogen is inefficient, with much of it lost to the environment through leaching, runoff, and volatilisation—harming water quality and degrading soil health—whereas foliar application is far more efficient and, when melted on-farm, much cheaper than commercial foliar products. Using sap analysis to tailor nutrient mixes to the plant's actual needs, the project is trialling different combinations of soil and foliar nitrogen to see how far inputs can be cut without hurting yield or grain quality.
The aim is to help farmers reduce fertiliser costs and their exposure to volatile fertiliser prices, while also cutting greenhouse gas emissions and building healthier, more resilient soils—delivering practical, farmer-led evidence for more sustainable nutrient management across the arable sector.
We will be hosting a dissemination event in November, check out our events calendar to find out more information.
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ADOPT: Optimising Field Production for Food and Nature
This ADOPT funded project is helping farmers use data to strike a better balance between food production and nature restoration, boosting productivity, profitability, and sustainability along the way. Working with five partner farms, it trials an accessible, data-driven approach to land use planning—combining historical yield data, satellite imagery, and farm software to show how different areas of a field respond to crop rotations, inputs, and environmental conditions. As well as fine-tuning cropping strategies, the project looks at whether persistently underperforming land might deliver better financial and ecological returns if switched to environmental use instead. The result will be practical, farm-specific strategies that help farmers make smarter decisions, cut waste, improve profitability, and build greater resilience to environmental, policy, and market pressures.
SLIMERS
We are collaborating farmers on BOFIN's (British On - Farm Innovation Network) slug monitoring and management trial.
Strategies Leading to Improved Management & Enhanced Resilience to Slugs
"Slugs are one of arable farming’s biggest pests estimated to cause about £43.5m worth of damage to UK wheat and oilseed rape crops every year. Since the ban on metaldehyde, ferric phosphate pellets are the only form of chemical control for slugs. Protecting the longevity of this will require both a holistic and precision approach to slug management.
SLIMERS is a £2.6m farmer-led research programme set to change the way slugs are monitored and treated, in a bid to drive sustainable solutions for slug management. It is funded by the Small R&D Partnership Projects, part of Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme which is delivered by Innovate UK. Project number 10053286."
TRUTH
We are collaborating farmers on BOFIN's (British On - Farm Innovation Network) soil health trial.
Thriving Roots Underpinning Total soil Health
"TRUTH is a three-year £1m research programme, led by BOFIN alongside four partners. It is funded by the Farming Futures R&D fund, part of Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme which is delivered by Innovate UK. Project number: 10085980.
This project will deliver two key innovations:
– A farmer-led platform comprising on-farm soil/root health testing tools validated during the project with ‘Root Rangers’, farmers who are trained to use it to inform SSM practices and to evaluate novel genetics and bioproducts.
– An in-field soil health sensor, which provides >10 soil health indicators, bringing in the measurement of microbial diversity and fungal:bacterial ratio."
Nutrigrow
We are project partners on Nature Friendly Farming Network (NFFN) project "NUTRIGROW".
"The project is a three-year research project designed to help farmers make the most of healthy, living soils. By bringing together science, technology and real-life farm experience, NUTRIGROW aims to show how understanding soil biology can improve crop performance, reduce reliance on chemical inputs, and support more nature-friendly farming.
The programme is funded by Innovate UK and led by agri-tech start-up Elaniti, working in partnership with AgAnalyst, the University of Lincoln, and NFFN. NUTRIGROW was launched in January 2025."
F.I.N.E
F.I.N.E (Framework for Improving Nitrogen Efficiency) is a network led by AgAnalyst and with the University of Lincoln as academic lead, the project is funded by Innovate UK.
"One of the core aims of FINE is to make Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) a metric that farmers are able to measure and monitor on every farm...FINE will provide farmers and agronomists with a single online service where they can access the combined expertise of the NUE-Profits group along with the field data from their farm so that they can make timely fertiliser interventions bespoke to each of their fields. This will allow farmers to use the right amount of Nitrogen, in the right part of the field, at the right time, optimising NUE, yield and protein in wheat."
H3 - Healthy Soil, Healthy Food, Healthy People
"World-class researchers from Sheffield, Leeds, Bristol, Cambridge, Newcastle, Birmingham and City Universities working in partnership with stakeholders, seek to transform the UK food system ‘from the ground up’ via an integrated programme of interdisciplinary research on ‘Healthy soil, Healthy food and Healthy people’ (H3). The H3 Consortium addresses the links between food production and consumption and takes an interdisciplinary approach. It will identify workable paths towards transformed UK food systems, delivered via a series of interventions: on farm, in food manufacturing, distribution and retail, and in terms of the health implications and inequalities associated with food consumption in UK homes and communities."
We were a partner farm in the projects aim to test the effect of implementing regenerative agriculture at a landscape scale.
The H3 programme is one of four research consortia funded by the £47.5M ‘Transforming UK Food System for Healthy People and a Healthy Environment SPF Programme’ delivered by UKRI, in partnership with the Global Food Security Programme, BBSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC, Defra, DHSC, PHE, Innovate UK and FSA.
