A new study from Rothamsted Research highlights the environmental trade-offs of converting grassland into arable farmland, showing significant reductions in soil macronutrients and increased nutrient pollution. Using long-term, field scale data from the Rothamsted North Wyke Farm Platform (a National Bioscience Research Infrastructure for the UK) in Devon, researchers compared three farming systems: permanent pasture, improved grassland comprising a grass/clover mix, and land converted from grass to arable cropping. Dr Yafei Guo from Rothamsted commented: “Many studies examining the impacts of land use conversion rely on plot scale data, meaning that field scale data, more representative of real farm conditions,…