Russell Ranch: a place to study the impacts of farming systems
and inputs on agricultural sustainability. Watch this video
about the research conducted at Russell Ranch! The Russell Ranch
Sustainable Agriculture Facility is a unique 300-acre facility
near the UC Davis campus dedicated to investigating irrigated
and dry-land agriculture in a Mediterranean climate. It’s also a
unit of the Agricultural Sustainability Institute (ASI). Among
Russell Ranch’s ongoing experiments is a 100-year study referred
to as Long Term Research in Agricultural Sustainability (LTRAS),
which is comprised of 72 one-acre plots. LTRAS is an exploration
of the long-term impacts of crop rotation, farming systems
(conventional, organic and mixed) and inputs of water, nitrogen,
carbon and other elements on agricultural sustainability.
Sustainability is indicated by long-term trends in yield,
profitability, resource-use efficiency (such as water or energy)
and environmental impacts. LTRAS has monitored changes in crop
and soil properties,