Prof. dr. ir. Geert Haesaert

The history of the experimental farm in Bottelare goes back to 1983. In this year, the first experimental plots of barley and maize were sown. Nowadays, the experimental farm of Bottelare is a well-equipped facility to carry out field experiments on arable crops including small grain cereals, maize, legumes and canola.  Research areas are breeding (triticale and barley), crop production and – protection and sustainable crop management. Some long-term experiments on crop rotation and soil management are running since 2002 and support this latter topic. The experimental farm supports academic research but also focuses on bilateral research with companies in relation to product development, crop management, plant genetics, etc. The last two decades expertise was built up on testing and evaluating of crop protection products, bio-control organisms and bio stimulants.

The farm exploits nearly 50 ha for its exploitation, which includes more than 25.000 experimental plots. Besides the typical experimental equipment (plot harvesters, calibrated backpack – and compact tractor sprayers, the farm has a phytopathological laboratory, phytotrons, minirhizotrons to observe root development under field conditions, etc. The experimental farm works together with supporting molecular, technological and chemical labs of UGent and is a key facility of the consortium CropFit.