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Ley–arable rotation and pasture cropping
Putting grass and livestock back into the arable rotation. The European form, years of ley alternated with crops, has 85 years of English soil data behind it. The Australian import, a cereal drilled into a dormant pasture, lost half its grain in the one European trial's dry year. And before either, check whether the field is permanent grassland.
The short answer
Leys build soil carbon and cut nitrogen, on 85 years of English data. At Rothamsted's Woburn experiment, topsoil carbon that started at 0.98% in 1938 stood at 1.24 to 1.40% under three- and eight-year leys by 2005 to 2009, against 0.80 to 0.91% under the arable rotations without a ley. More wheat and less fertiliser nitrogen after each ley are reported too, from the experiment summary rather than the yield paper itself. The carbon gain plateaus once the soil reaches its new balance.
Drilling a cereal into a dormant pasture lost half the grain when it mattered. In the only European trial, at Madrid on 385 mm of rain, barley yields matched conventional in wet years and fell 50 to 61% in the dry one. The authors judged the system "not well adapted" to central Spain. Australian trials show 35 to 65% less grain than no-till.
Check the parcel's status before you drill. Sowing a crop into permanent grassland is a CAP land-use conversion: the field leaves permanent-grassland status, the state can order it reconverted, and on Natura 2000 land ploughing is banned outright.
The European form is the ley, not the import
"Pasture cropping" arrived in Europe as an Australian idea: sow a winter cereal by direct drill into a summer-active perennial pasture as it goes dormant, harvest in early summer, graze the regrowth, and never leave the soil bare. It depends on a grass that sleeps through winter and a spring that reliably rains. Europe mostly has neither, and the one European trial shows what happens without them.
Europe's own way of putting livestock and crops on the same field is older and better evidenced: the ley–arable rotation, years of grass or grass–clover alternated with years of crops. This page grades both, plus the two things in between, grazing a cover crop and the dehesa's cereal year under the oaks. Trees with pasture are on the agroforestry page; how to graze the ley is on the rotational grazing page.
Before you drill: is it permanent grassland?
This comes first because it can end the discussion. Under the Common Agricultural Policy, permanent grassland is land in grass or other herbaceous forage that has not been in the holding's crop rotation for five years or more, seven under the 2025 simplification. The Court of Justice ruled in Grund (C-47/13, 2 October 2014) that ploughing and reseeding with a different grass does not break that status, and neither does harrowing and overseeding (EUR-Lex). But sowing a cereal puts the parcel into the crop rotation: it stops being permanent grassland and counts as a conversion to arable. Under GAEC 1, if a member state's permanent-grassland ratio falls more than 5% against its reference year (10% under the simplification package), farmers who converted can be ordered to reconvert; on Natura 2000 grassland, GAEC 9 bans ploughing outright; and many countries require authorisation before conversion (Commission, conditionality).
So pasture-cropping or ley-cropping a temporary ley is a drilling decision. Doing it to a permanent pasture is a regulated land-use change that can cost payments for years. Check the parcel in your land-parcel system first.
Ley–arable rotation: what 85 years of data say
Rothamsted's Woburn Ley-Arable Experiment has run on a sandy loam since 1938, comparing continuous arable with rotations that include three- or eight-year leys, then two arable test crops. Topsoil organic carbon began at 0.98% after a century of arable farming. By 2005 to 2009:
| Rotation since 1938 | Topsoil organic carbon, 2005–09 |
|---|---|
| Continuous arable | 0.91% |
| Arable with roots or fallow | 0.80% |
| Three-year grass ley, then two arable crops | 1.27% |
| Three-year grass–clover ley, then two arable crops | 1.24% |
| Eight-year leys | about 1.40% |
Leys accumulated 0.26 to 0.36 t of carbon per hectare a year while building, then approached a new equilibrium after which "no further CO₂-C will be sequestered" (European Journal of Soil Science, 2017, open access; Rothamsted e-RA dataset). Wheat yields were higher after the three-year grass ley than in continuous arable and higher again after grass–clover, with less fertiliser nitrogen needed to reach them (as reported from the experiment summary; the yield paper timed out for this page).
Reading. A third of the rotation in ley lifts topsoil carbon by a quarter to a half over decades and cuts nitrogen, and the gain stops when the soil is full. The cost is that a third to half of the land is out of cash crops at any time, so it needs livestock or a forage market. This is the case study with the longest soil-carbon series on the site.
Pasture cropping in the strict sense: one European trial, and it failed the dry year
Australia. On the originator's farm in New South Wales, soil carbon is reported to have doubled from 2 to 4% in ten years, oats sown into native grassland to have yielded up to 4 t/ha, and costs to have fallen by over A$120,000 a year with output maintained (Soils for Life; advocacy and originator sources). The controlled trials read differently: wheat pasture-cropped into established perennial grass yielded 35% and 49% less than conventional in two seasons, and across trials pasture-cropped wheat was "consistently lower" than no-till, by as much as half, limited by nitrogen and moisture (NSW Department of Primary Industries and Grain & Graze trials, as reported; NSW Local Land Services). The advisory line is that the system pays only when the extra forage is used by livestock to offset the grain lost.
Europe: La Poveda, Madrid, 2015 to 2019. The only European field trial found. Semi-arid, 385 mm a year, 289 mm in the barley season. Two summer-active grasses established (Cynodon dactylon, Eragrostis curvula; two others died in winter); winter barley direct-drilled into the dormant sward. Weeds fell 80 to 90%. Barley yield was no different in the wet years, 2016 and 2018, and 50 and 61% lower in the dry 2019, when yields across the whole experiment collapsed. Forage was 1,038 to 2,704 kg of dry matter a hectare in spring and anywhere from near zero to 6,209 kg in summer, depending entirely on rain. The authors: pasture cropping "appears not to be well adapted to the environmental conditions of central Spain" because of competition in low-rainfall springs, and they suggest irrigation (Plants, 2020, open access).
Reading. Two crops share one spring's water. Where the perennial is truly dormant and the rain comes, the cereal is fine; where either fails, the cereal loses, and it loses most in exactly the dry years this site is about. The same shape as cover crops and intercropping: a benefit that needs water, exported to places without it. No trial in the UK, France, Italy or Eastern Europe was found. It has a claims page.
Grazing the cover crop: the route that pays
A 2020 review of grazing cover crops in integrated crop–livestock systems found it "can be done with minimal consequences for soil compaction or soil organic carbon loss in the short term" at moderate stocking, defoliation and sward height, with compaction risk when stocking is high or soils are wet; most of the data are from the Americas (Animal, 2020, as reported; Agronomy Journal review, 2024). For a European farm with stock this is the realistic entry: the cover crop that the cover crops page shows losing money in 95% of UK cases becomes forage, and the animals pay for it. It is the one route on this site that closes that gap without a subsidy.
The dehesa's cereal year
Iberian wood pasture rotates crop, rest and pasture on a 4 to 7 year cycle; after one barley or oat crop the soil "is exhausted of nutrients and unable to produce a crop the next year", so the field returns to grass. A cost–benefit analysis of Cáceres dehesas found cereal–grass rotations more profitable than oak regeneration even after environmental services were valued (Forest Systems; yields not retrieved). It is the Iberian ley–arable, under trees; the silvopasture yield result is on the agroforestry page.
Where it fits
| Context | Fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Mixed farm with livestock or a forage market, light soils | Best: ley–arable | Woburn: +0.26–0.36 t C/ha/yr while building; less N; more wheat after the ley |
| Arable farm that can bring in stock over winter | Good: grazed covers | Turns a money-losing cover into forage; minimal soil cost at moderate stocking |
| Dehesa and montado | Traditional and rational | 4–7 year cereal rotation more profitable than regeneration (Cáceres) |
| Dry rainfed arable, strict pasture cropping | Not shown; negative at 385 mm | Madrid: −50–61% grain in the dry year |
| Permanent grassland of any kind | Check status first | Conversion, reconversion orders, Natura 2000 ban |
| Groves and vineyards | See agroforestry | Cereal under trees is the dehesa model |
What it costs
| Item | Figure | Country, year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct-drill pass | £77.63/ha | UK, NAAC 2025-26 | costs page |
| Grain penalty, strict pasture cropping | −35% to −65% vs no-till; −50–61% in a dry year | Australia, as reported; Spain, 2019 | NSW DPI/LLS; Plants 2020 |
| Forage gained, strict pasture cropping | spring 1,038–2,704 kg DM/ha; summer 0–6,209 kg DM/ha | Spain, 2015–19 | Plants 2020 |
| Weed density | −80–90% | Spain, 2015–19 | Plants 2020 |
| Soil carbon gain from leys | 0.26–0.36 t C/ha/yr while building | England, 1938–2009 | Woburn |
| Fertiliser nitrogen saved after a ley | "less N needed"; figure not retrieved | England | Rothamsted |
| Originator's cost saving | "over A$120,000/yr" | Australia, undated | Winona, advocacy |
| Eco-scheme, extensive grassland with stock | 435.90 zł/ha (≈€102) | Poland, 2025 | funding page |
Timeline. Strict pasture cropping: one season, and the harvest tells you. Ley–arable: yield and nitrogen benefits in the first arable crop after the ley; soil carbon measurable at five to ten years. Grazed covers: one winter.
Commitment
Moderate, and two different clocks. Agronomically everything here is reversible in a season. In CAP terms, converting permanent grassland is not: the parcel needs five (now seven) years back in grass to regain status, and the state can order reconversion. A ley–arable rotation also takes a third or more of the land out of cash crops for years at a time.
How to start
- Check the parcel's CAP status. If it is permanent grassland, drilling a cereal is a conversion that may need authorisation and can be reversed on you. Use a temporary ley or an arable field.
- Graze a cover crop first, at moderate stocking on dry soil. Lowest risk, and it makes the cover pay.
- If you have stock and arable, plan a ley–arable rotation: a three-year grass–clover ley in a five- or six-year rotation is the Woburn template.
- Trial strict pasture cropping only where a summer-active sward already exists, with a conventional strip beside it, and budget for half the grain.
- Measure forage as well as grain. The system only pays through the livestock.
Risks and failure modes
Grain loss in a dry spring, 50 to 61% in the Spanish trial. The perennial and the cereal drink from the same profile.
Nitrogen limitation of the cereal in a grass sward, in every Australian trial.
Herbicides. A grass sward in a cereal leaves few selective options; the system's own weed suppression partly compensates.
Perennial establishment. Two of four summer grasses died in Madrid winters.
CAP conversion. Payments cut, reconversion ordered, Natura 2000 ploughing banned.
Compaction from grazing covers on wet soil or at high stocking.
Advocacy numbers. The soil-carbon doubling and the cost saving quoted above are the originator's own and undated; the controlled trials show yield losses.
Claims checked. Pasture cropping works anywhere. Woburn and La Poveda are both on the case studies page, the second as the site's first documented negative result. How to graze the ley is on the rotational grazing page; how no-till fares without rotation is on the no-till page.
Addendum 2026-09-12: an English ley result. At Leeds University's farm near Tadcaster (2015–18), a three-year grass–clover ley, sprayed off and direct-drilled to wheat, gave 7.7 t/ha in 2018 at 35 kg N/ha, against 4.3 t/ha for continuous ploughed wheat on the same site and fertiliser, 92 to 106% of the UK average that year on a quarter of the usual nitrogen. Root colonisation by native mycorrhizal fungi was 52% after the ley against 36% under the plough, and sooty ear mould was 90% lower. A bought mycorrhizal inoculant on the continuous plots gave nothing (open access); see mycorrhizal inoculation.