Allerton Project Research Blog

Radio-tagging and wing-tagging birds has been carried out by the GWCT for research purposes for many years. During the 60s and 70s, a National Game-Marking Scheme was set up by the GWCT to gain an understanding on how the release dates and ages of pheasants effected the overall percentage return.

At the Allerton Project, the research team aim to measure some of the ecosystem benefits of agroforestry and set them into a realistic farming example.

2026 sees the GWCT’s Big Farmland Bird Count return to its spiritual home of the Allerton Project, the GWCT’s research and demonstration farm on the Leicestershire-Rutland border, where it was originally launched in 2014.

Joe Stanley shares his transformative journey at the Allerton Project, advocating sustainable farming practices, addressing obstacles to adoption, and emphasising the need for greater support across the food supply chain.

Professor Chris Stoate looks back on the Allerton Project’s achievements as he steps down as its Head of Research.

The annual monitoring of breeding songbirds at the Allerton Project now represents a long-term dataset spanning 33 years. Overall songbird numbers remain around 70% higher than they were at the start of the project in 1992.

I recently returned from the biennial EURAF European Agroforestry Conference in the Czech Republic. My train from Vienna was cancelled because of exceptionally severe flooding in Austria and southern Germany so that I arrived home a day late. It was a relatively minor inconvenience. The flooding resulted in fatalities, river levels rising to their highest level in a century, and the Danube being closed to shipping.

Over Agroforestry Open Weekend 2024 we will be open Friday 17th May 1.00 – 3.00pm

We all have vested interests. Sometimes they can be a driver for good. There are some opportunities to be realised through adoption of climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies, but we need to accept that there are sacrifices too, and individuals vary in their willingness to embrace this for the greater good.

Farmers are experiencing a period of considerable change as area payments are withdrawn, global market pressures reduce income, climate change introduces unfamiliar challenges, and new agri-environment schemes are rolled out. Chapter 8 of Farming with the Environment explores these issues from the farmer’s viewpoint, based on our collaborative working with local farmers on various initiatives over the years.