Hessische Staatsdomäne Frankenhausen Teaching and Research Farm

The Hessische Staatsdomäne Frankenhausen, which has been leased by the University of Kassel since 1998, is located at the gates of Kassel in the agriculturally favoured landscape Hofgeismarer Rötsenke. Since 1998, 320 ha have been cultivated there according to the guidelines of organic farming and a modern teaching, research and transfer centre for organic farming and sustainable regional development has been established, which is used by the Department of Organic Agricultural Sciences as a teaching and experimental farm. However, the ‘transparent’ model farm for ecologically, economically and socially sustainable management is not restricted to university research and teaching, but is also freely accessible to interested members of the public.
On the Hessische Staatsdomäne Frankenhausen, a two-year field trial is being carried out since August 2023 as part of the Farmers-led Research Network, alongside the trials on the practical farms. The set-up is similar to that on the practical farms, with the same variants of breaking up the soil. In this trial, all pathways of the nitrogen absorbed by catch crops shall be investigated during the catch crop phase as well as under the subsequent crop. . Different sampling methods are used for this purpose: Soil samples (mineralised nitrogen Nmin), biomass harvests (N in the catch crop biomass and the following crop), leachate samples (N losses), gas measurements (gaseous N losses). A stable isotope measurement (15N labelling) is also carried out to investigate which share of the nitrogen taken up by the catch crops ends up in which nitrogen pool. Thus, the influence of the variants of breaking up the soil on the dynamics of the nitrogen cycle under catch crops can be precisely registered.