Turning gaming into reality, a new online experiment offers Farmville addicts the chance to do it for real – with a National Trust farm in Cambridgeshire to be precise.

www.myfarm.org.uk is centred around the Wimpole Estate, a 2,500 acre property where, for a onetime fee of £30, virtual farmers make all the decisions from which bull to buy, or which crop to plant, to whether to spilt fields and resurrect lost hedgerows.

Tapping into the success of online games like Farmville which has 62 million active users worldwide and counting, the National Trust's MyFarm is looking for 10,000 members to make crowd-sourced farm management choices to control Wimpole Estates’ crops, livestock, facilities and investments.

Users are given one big decision a month (this month’s is 'what to grow in the 21 hectare pond field') and the website is filled with debates, discussions news, films and pictures about that decision and where it will lead.

All without the 4am starts, smelly wellies or cowpats. It’s sure to be a hit.