Ragnar Eltun
Head of Department/Head of Research
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Division of Food Production and Society
(+47) 975 83 073 ragnar.eltun@nibio.no Office Location: Apelsvoll
Contact
Research sections at Løken
With its situation at 530 meters altitude, Løken Research Station has a long tradition as a testing station for grass and forage crop breeding, and as a field station for performing crop husbandry and grazing trials on both cultivated land on rough grazing throughout the mountains and valleys of Southern Norway.
Løken is an ancient farm with a significant cultural history, with in all 26 buildings. The farmyard and its associated 11 buildings comprise an official cultural heritage site, and most of the other buildings are also protected by law. This includes the buildings that are in active use for research purposes. This protection status has little effect on the performance of daily research work, but it involves extra expense for maintenance of those buildings not in use for research purposes.
Løken is an ancient farm with a significant cultural history, with in all 26 buildings. The farmyard and its associated 11 buildings comprise an official cultural heritage site, and most of the other buildings are also protected by law. This includes the buildings that are in active use for research purposes. This protection status has little effect on the performance of daily research work, but it involves extra expense for maintenance of those buildings not in use for research purposes.
Research topics and focus:
- Forage production in valley and mountain regions
- Test station for breeding material from Graminor
- Fodder quality analysis, NIRS laboratory
- Cultural landscape and biological diversity – management of rough grazing
- Rough grazing for sheep and cattle
- Sheep and goat husbandry
- Commercial development with focus on product quality from mountain regions
Services:
- NIRS – lab for quality analyses of dried grass samples
- Weather station with continuous records since 1918
The station has one dwelling house, four apartments and a mountain cabin for rent.
Løken is the oldest research station in NIBIO and will celebrate 100 years in 2018. The station will be closed as an autonomous unit on 31.12. 2017, but the research activities will continue throughout 2020, led from NIBIO Apelsvoll.