The main demonstration field is situated in Huldenberg. This field is divided into three treatments (conventional tillage, farmer reduced tillage and SOWAP best management practice), each with two replicate erosion plots. Soil erosion work as well as ecologicol work (earthworm assessment, microbiology) will be carried out at this field.

The demonstration field belongs to the family farm ‘Hof ter Vaeren’, a 85ha (55ha cropland and 30ha pasture) mixed farm. The main crops are potatoes, wheat, sugar beet, and maize. The livestock consists of 200 meat and dairy cows. The majority of the milk is converted at the farm into butter, cheese, yoghurt and ice cream and can be consumed in the farm shop. For more than 20 years, ‘Hof ter Vaeren’ has been ‘open’ to visitors.

Conventional and conservation oriented soil management practices will be applied at farm scale. In Belgium, we have about 15 ‘farmer fields’, each split into at least two parts: one conventionally tilled, the other undergoing conservation tillage. Here, erosion surveys and rainfall simulation experiments will take place. A cost-benefit analysis of each field will be undertaken.

The farmer fields fall into 3 areas: southwest of Leuven, northwest of Leuven and fields around Sint-Truiden. Most of these fields are situated in the Belgian loess belt. The loess-derived soils have a very high silt content (70-80%) and a moderate clay content (10-20%). The main crops are maize, sugar beet, potatoes and wheat.