On-farm research station Görzig: farm-led research in organic farming

Head: Prof. Dr. Janna Macholdt, Dr. Thomas Chudy

In cooperation with the farm association Hof Pfaffendorf, we have the opportunity to conduct on-farm field experiments on arable land under real-world practice conditions (approximately 100 ha). The land has been farmed organically since 2022. The research questions are farmer-led and jointly developed between science and farming practice, with a focus on organic agriculture.

It is located in the eastern Harz foreland, in the district of Köthen, Saxony-Anhalt. Characteristic soil types are weakly clayey and sandy silt. The area is classified as a dry region, with an annual precipitation of around 474 mm and a mean annual temperature of 9.2°C.

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On-farm experiments & research results

Scientific publications

• Gross, A., Bromm, T., Polifka, S., Schierhorn, F. (2022): The carbon footprint of milk during the conversion from conventional to organic production on a dairy farm in central Germany. Agron. Sustain. Dev. 42, 37 DOI 10.1007/s13593-022-00775-7   
• Pätzold, S., Leenen, M., Frizen, P., Heggemann, T., Wagner, P. und Rodionov, A. (2020): Predicting plant available phosphorus using  infrared spectroscopy with consideration for future mobile sensing  applications in precision farming. Precision Agriculture, Volume 21(2), Page 1-25. DOI 10.1007/s11119-019-09693-3   
• Wagner, P. und Hank, K. (2013): Suitability of aerial and satellite data for calculation of site-specific nitrogen fertilisation compared to ground based sensor data. Precision Agriculture, Volume 14 Issue 2, 2013, Page 135-150. DOI 10.1007/s11119-012-9278-1    ISSN: 1385-2256 (Print) 1573-1618 (Online).