A RESEARCH facility near Okehampton has launched a unique new farming platform project to record farming's impact on the environment and to gauge productivity.

North Wyke research station, run by Rothamstead Research, has launched its new 'farm platform' — a project consisting of three farming systems, each covering around 20 hectares.

The underlying principle is to manage each of the systems differently and record the impact on water, air, soil and productivity.

Each system is divided into 15 hydrologically isolated catchments so that all the water leaving a catchment is channelled through a flume.

The three farms are equipped with monitoring equipment and nine kilometres of French drains so that researchers can monitor everything that goes in and comes off the farm.

The site also has a 'research hotel' so scientists can come from around the country to perform their own experiments.

North Wyke has a fully resourced research farm with extensive facilities. The area extends to 250 hectares, with a variety of woodland, free draining redland and poorly drained Culm Measures clays.

The laboratories underwent an extensive refurbishment in September 2008, including the establishment of a larger microbiology facility.