Race on to find top-yielding cereal growers
With crop yields stagnating and world food demand growing, crop consultant ADAS is leading a drive towards higher yields and finding champion growers. David Jones reports
The race is on to find Britain’s top-yielding cereal growers as ADAS is bidding to break through the yield plateau facing farmers.
The search kicks off this month to find the growers who could challenge world record harvests for cereal crops and also those who can get close to their potential yield.
With a burgeoning world population to feed there is a pressing need for a leap forward in yields, and current high grain prices pull the trigger to start this race.
Farmers are being urged to enter their crops into ADAS’ Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) competition in an effort to shatter the ceiling on yields.
Awards for all
Those with a good climates and soils can attempt to break the Guinness Book of Records for yield. But anyone can win something because there are also awards for achieving the highest percentage of local potential yield.
Potential crop yields in Britain are estimated at well over twice that of current farm production, so ADAS is linking with industry heavyweights to try and narrow this gap.
“We need to look at how to capture more light in the early spring and late summer and convert it into yield”
Roger Sylvester-Bradley
Wheat yields have stagnated over the last two decades as farmers have reacted to lower prices by cutting costs, but current high prices are now a catalyst for change.
“We believe that higher prices will be sustained, so we should be directing our focus more towards production,” says ADAS principle scientist Roger Sylvester-Bradley.
World farmers need to raise food production 70% by 2050 to feed a burgeoning population and so higher yields are urgently needed.
Dwindling agrochemicals
This comes at a time when farmers face tighter regulations, which have resulted in a dwindling number of agrochemicals approved for use and restrictions on fertiliser use.
Prof Sylvester-Bradley believes potential wheat yields in Britain could be as high as 18t/ha, compared with average farm yields a touch below 8t/ha, although the best farms and research trials can hit 12t/ha.
The “technology gap” between potential and best farm yields is what he is looking to narrow and hopes the yield competition will drive innovation on the farm.
He argues there is a need for another leap forward in yields after the breakthroughs of the 1970s and 1980s, which were driven by new varieties and increased use of fertiliser and fungicide inputs.
“We need to look at how to capture more light in the early spring and late summer, and convert it into yield,” he says.
Driving innovation
It is hoped the competition will drive innovation and it already involves industry members such as agrochemical giants BASF, Bayer and Syngenta, advisers Frontier and Hutchinsons and fertiliser group Yara.
There will also be collaboration with consultants NIAB TAG, Irish agriculture and food development authority Teagasc, Rothamsted Research and precision farming group the Courtyard Partnership.
The members will help identify top growers with bright ideas to enter the yield competition and, together with ADAS, will explore potential avenues to push yields higher.
After years of cost-cutting on the farm with feed wheat prices slumping as low as £60/t, the recovery in prices towards £200/t should encourage a new drive towards higher yields.
These may include new ways of getting deeper roots, longer-lasting crop canopies and greater light and water capture by such methods as deep subsoiling and drainage, improved sowing techniques, novel rotations and irrigation.
In addition, different genetics – perhaps with varieties from abroad – will be looked at, as well as better crop nutrition, maybe through soil amelioration or clever chemistry.
Genetic modification might be helpful in raising yields in the long term, but despite much industry and government investment there are few signs of any yield breakthroughs yet.
Importance of light capture
ADAS says for crops yielding around 8t/ha, light capture is often the biggest limiting factor, while for crops of 12t/ha water capture is more often the factor holding back yield.
This leads ADAS to suggest that south-west England and south-east Ireland should have the biggest potential for high yields in the British Isles due to their high rainfall and solar radiation.
The world record holder for wheat yields is Mike Solari, who farms about 40 miles from the southernmost tip of New Zealand’s South Island and gains from cool and bright summer days and good rainfall.
Mr Solari harvested a wheat crop of 15.7t/ha in 2010, and although gaining a place in the Guinness Book of Records, ADAS calculate his potential yield was much higher at 25.7t/ha.
He applied a hefty 450kg/ha of nitrogen fertiliser to a crop that also gained from residual nitrogen following a double-break of peas and grass, and lots of New Zealand sunlight.
Britain’s champion wheat grower David Hoyles in southern Lincolnshire harvested a 14.3t/ha crop in 2011 after a string of vegetable crops, but had a narrower gap with a potential yield of 20.7t/ha.
POTENTIAL UK CROP YIELDS
- Winter wheat – around 18t/ha
- Oilseed rape – around 9t/ha
- Spring peas – around 9t/ha
Based on maximum conversion of available resources
- Annual crops could capture up to 60% of annual light energy
- Light energy conversion could be up to 1.4g of dry matter/MJ of energy
- Annual crops could capture water to 1.5m depth
- Water conversion could be up to 5.5g of dry matter/litre
- Harvestable dry matter can be up to 60% of total dry matter grown
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
Any grower aspiring to get close to the maximum potential yield of their land can join in by visiting
www.yen.adas.co.uk or by contacting the competition’s farming industry partners.
Gold, silver and bronze awards will be given for growers with the highest absolute yield and also the highest percentage of potential yields.
Similar gold, silver and bronze prizes will also be awarded for trial plots, again both for highest yield and highest potential percentage yield, meaning 12 prizes will be awarded at an autumn conference on 13 November.
Growers will need to register and fill in details such as location, soil type and other factors, from which ADAS will calculate the potential yield for the chosen site.
ADAS will also analyse a whole-crop sample of 100 shoots collected by growers just pre-harvest and will report on total growth, grain set, partitioning of dry matter to grain, and grain size.
After harvest, ADAS specialists will suggest the main causes of the gap between potential yield and yield achieved for each crop and inform on future ideas to increase yield.
The cost of entry will be £250, for which growers will get an analysis and report on their yield attempt, including an assessment of the yield potential at their site.
Crop reports will be released at the 13 November event, when results will be discussed and the awards will be made.
WHAT FARMERS GET FOR ENTERING
- Weather effect on crop yields in 2012Comprehensive yield analysis in a bespoke report
- Potential yield calculation for your farm
- Benchmarking your crop performance against high-yield norms for nutrient capture, total growth, grain set and gain fill
- Benchmarking your yield analysis against other leading farms
- Assessment of principal growth and yield shortcomings each season
- Attendance at autumn yield conference
