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MATERIALS AND METHODS<br />

Field Experiment<br />

Field experiments have been established at three contr<strong>as</strong>ting sites (Figure 1). The<br />

soils at Loddington in Leicestershire consist of Hanslope and Denchworth series<br />

clays on an erodible slope. The site is run by the Allerton Trust which seeks to<br />

demonstrate means of farming profitably with minimal environmental impact. The<br />

soil at the Moorfield site at ADAS Rosemaund consists of a silty clay loam of the<br />

Bromyard/Middleton series. The site at Old Hattons, near Wolverhampton is owned<br />

and operated by Seven Trent Water plc. The soils here are of a sandy loam texture,<br />

have a high P content and are prone to erosion. They are poorly structured sandy<br />

loam soils overlying compacted glacial till. A number of different treatments with the<br />

potential to reduce P losses will be investigated at each site.<br />

Figure 1: The location of the Loddington, Moorfield and Rosemaund field<br />

sites<br />

At each field site run-off from unbounded plots (12 m wide and the length of the hill<br />

slope) will be collected in troughs towards the b<strong>as</strong>e of the slope and will run through<br />

pipes to sample splitters. The sample splitters will enable the collection of between<br />

50% and 12.5% of run-off depending on conditions. The collected run-off will be<br />

stored in tanks for subsequent sub-sampling and analysis.<br />

TREATMENTS<br />

Cultivation Techniques<br />

Minimum tillage is currently being promoted <strong>as</strong> an erosion control tool and experiments<br />

in Bedfordshire have shown that cultivation across the slope and minimum tillage<br />

245

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