A Norfolk farm is set to become a national focal point for crop experiments - as it aims to "bridge the gap" between cutting-edge research and real-world farming.

Morley Farms, near Wymondham, has been named as the new AHDB Strategic Cereal Farm East - one of only four in the country.

The initiative, run by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, will develop farm-scale trials for the next six years.

Farm manager David Jones hopes it will inspire growers to adopt new ideas and change the way they work.

And he is no stranger to research and innovation.

Morley Farms is the commercial arm of the Morley Agricultural Foundation (TMAF) which funds farming research and hosts trials for organisations including NIAB (National Institute Of Agricultural Botany) and the Norwich-based British Beet Research Organisation (BBRO).

Mr Jones runs the main farm as a commercial enterprise, making it the perfect platform to put science into practice.

"There are people doing research and farmers doing some farming, and there is a big gap between the two," he said. "So this is about making that research applicable to practical farming, and bridging the gap to make new ideas and technologies work in the field.

"We are already doing lots of [research] work anyway, so we have lots of background data about the farm and the fields. With the Strategic Farm we will set up some new projects, and hopefully we can have more impact.

"TMAF is hopefully now quite well-known locally, but through AHDB we will get talked about nationally."

A steering group will decide the projects to pursue, which will then be put out to tender to research organisations such as NIAB or ADAS. More details are expected on specific projects at the Strategic Farm's first open day in November.

But Mr Jones has already identified two key areas he wants to explore. One is chemical-free ways of reducing grass weeds to reduce the reliance on chemical herbicides, and another is looking at producing better yields with less environmental impact, by reducing artificial pesticides and fertilisers.

"I still want to farm conventionally, but in an environmentally sympathetic way that continues to deliver on yields," he said.

Mr Jones will succeed Suffolk farmers Brian and Patrick Barker, based near Stowmarket, as their six-year tenure as Strategic Cereal Farm East hosts comes to an end.