Organic Farming

SAC Organic Research aims to provide, in partnership with other leaders in the organic farming industry in Europe:

• excellent inter-disciplinary research addressing key biological, environmental and socio-economic issues in order to improve organic farming systems
• research which will assist Scotland, the UK and Europe in meeting their commitments to the Organic Action Plan(s)
• operational research aimed at evaluating the performance of whole-farm systems
• targeted field experimentation on SAC’s organic farms and in partnership with organic farmers across Scotland

SAC has been involved in R&D for organic farming since the mid 1980's.

Research funded by the Scottish Government, Defra, EU, SNH and industry

1980's focus on comparing organic and conventional beef systems at Craibstone

1990 - SAC convert 2 farms in NE Scotland to organic

1991 - Long term crop rotations trial established