Yield Enhancement Network: Helping farmers ‘measure to manage’ crops’ growth & development, nutrients and greenhouse gas emissions

The Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) was established in 2012 to enable farmers to understand their crops? performance, thus facilitating them, in collaboration with scientists, to pose and test hypotheses for yield improvement. Initially the YENs focused on cereals and oilseeds growth and development. The combined dataset allowed conclusions to be drawn about important factors associated with yield formation. Recently the YEN has expanded, both geographically and in the range of metrics measured. Farmers can measure and benchmark the grain content of all 12 major and minor nutrients for cereals, oilseeds and pulses. This has identified phosphorus as often potentially limiting yields, with significant potential gross-margin gains if this is addressed. Farmers can also enter crops for greenhouse-gas emissions (GHGs) calculation, receiving suggestions for mitigation options. With understanding of their crops? growth, development, nutrient contents and GHGs, farmers have the opportunity to consider changes which could benefit business profitability and environmental sustainability.