Norfolk four-course rotation
Rotación cuatrienal de Norfolk (trigo-nabo-cebada-trébol)
- Date
- c. 1730 · confidence medium
- Place
- Norfolk, England (Raynham, Holkham)
- Credited to
- Charles 'Turnip' Townshend and Norfolk farmers; Flemish origin (Waasland)
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
A fallow-free rotation alternating cereals with turnips and clover, fodder crops that fed livestock through winter and fixed nitrogen in the soil. It doubled grain and meat output.
The system originated in Flanders (16th century); Townshend popularised it in England.
What it led to
- The British Agricultural Revolution and population growth
- Enclosures and capitalist agriculture
- Labour freed up for industry
- Livestock improvement (Bakewell)
Built on
- Seed drill1701
- Medieval three-field rotation
- Flemish fodder farming
Made possible
- Bakewell's selective breeding
- High-input agriculture
- Agricultural chemistry