Due to declining sponsorship, ADAS has decided to close facilitation of the UK Cereal and Oilseeds Yield Enhancement Network (YENs) for cereals and oilseeds.
2025 will be the last harvest analysed by the two largest YENs. The YENs for peas and beans, facilitated by ADAS and PGRO, will continue beyond harvest 2025.
Professor Roger Sylvester-Bradley, the founder of YEN and head of crop performance at ADAS explained: “The YEN has been a fantastic driving force for arable industry collaboration and has greatly enhanced our understanding of field yield. The vast YEN dataset, comprising thousands of crop yields built over so many harvests, has enabled us to pinpoint the causes behind yield variation – weather is only part of the puzzle. YEN provided us with definitive proof that, with a detail-oriented farming approach, 15 t/ha winter wheat yields are feasible almost anywhere in the UK.”
“Nonetheless, the work of YEN was only possible thanks to the goodwill and financial support of sponsors who have contributed to its development for the last thirteen years. Without ongoing support, the YEN could not continue in its present form.”
Ongoing projects
Despite cereal and oilseeds YENs coming to an end in the UK, the YEN concept is growing in popularity internationally with YEN networks appearing in Canada, the US, and New Zealand.
Roger summarised: “This isn’t the end of YEN. It is fantastic to see other countries adopt the YEN concept for their growers, having seen and been inspired by what we’re doing in the UK. We will continue to look at how we can further develop our remaining YENs – the Pea and Bean YENs, our grain analysis and benchmarking service YEN Nutrition, and the crop carbon benchmarking network YEN Zero.”
