YEN Yield Testing

Farmer Innovation Group as part of the YEN Yield Testing EIP Agri project

Amino acids have been widely reported in the farming press and in a few scientific papers to be biostimulants, but with little or no independent evidence from UK field conditions. This Amino Acid FIG was established to put that right, making eight tests in 2018 and five more in 2019.

In 2018 application timings were either autumn or autumn & spring (targeting tillering and stem extension), 7/8 sites were taken to completion. In 2019 the timings were T1 (early stem extension) and/or T2 (final leaf fully emerged) or in response to drought stress and 3/5 sites were taken to completion.

In 2018, spring application resulted in a significant positive effect at one out of seven sites (+0.5 t/ha). Whereas, autumn and spring application resulted in a significant negative effect at one site out of four (-0.71 t/ha). However, these two significant results were from the same field with no treatment replication, and may have been compromised by underlying soil variation within the field. In 2019 there were no significant effects of amino acids at any of the three sites. When the spring and T1 timing trials were grouped in a cross site analysis (9 sites in total) there was no significant effect of amino acid application (Mean weighted yield effect = 0.11 t/ha, SE = 0.086).

This suggests that under these conditions (relatively high yielding wheat crops), the application of amino acids was not beneficial for yield and did not provide an economic benefit. If considering use of biostimulants, growers should consider joint on-farm testing of products if no independent evidence for claimed product effects is available.

Click here to read the full report.

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ADAS provides ideas, specialist knowledge and solutions to secure our food and enhance the environment. We understand food production and the challenges and opportunities faced by organisations operating in the natural environment

YEN

The Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) was launched in 2012 to support and energise on-farm learning-by-sharing and thus to enhance farming progress.

Biostimulants are increasingly available and are now widely marketed to farmers. While the jury is still out on a definitive definition, most definitions of biostimulants explain that they should stimulate plant nutrition processes independently of the product’s nutrient content with the aim of improving one or more of the following characteristics: nutrient efficiency, tolerance to abiotic stress, and/or quality.

Agronomics is the science of understanding the variation in the cropped environment, identifying the management practices and system designs that work. It uses a farm centric approach of shared farm data and on-farm experimentation.

On Farm Experimentation (OFE) is increasingly being recognised as having transformative power in improving performance in agricultural systems across the world.

EIP-Agri Project supporting groups of YEN farmers to test specific ideas.