The UK Cereal and Oilseeds Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) is seeking a new facilitator following 13 years of management by ADAS.

YEN, founded by ADAS in 2012, has helped growers in the UK and North-West Europe to benchmark their crop performance and identify yield restrictions to improve their productivity. However, declining sponsorship has meant that 2025 will be the last harvest analysed by the two largest YENs – cereals and oilseeds.

The YENs for peas and beans, facilitated by ADAS and PGRO, will continue beyond harvest 2025.

Driving force

Professor Roger Sylvester-Bradley, the founder of YEN and head of crop performance at ADAS says it’s been a fantastic driving force for arable industry collaboration.

“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, 15t/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’ve contributed to its development for the last 13 years. Without ongoing support, the YEN couldn’t continue in its present form.”

Awards

The name YEN is well recognised for the annual YEN Awards, celebrating the country’s highest yields. Long-time YEN member and Lincolnshire grower, Tim Lamyman, famously broke world records for his winter wheat and winter barley yields – achievements announced at the 2022 YEN Awards.

Even after removing the extraordinary outliers, farmers involved in YEN consistently achieved above-average yields for their region in any given year. For example, in 2024, the average YEN winter wheat yield was 10.3t/ha, compared with the national average of 7.3t/ha.

Some farmers involved in YEN have had incredible successes, but all farmers involved have used YEN to work towards their own personal bests, highlights Roger. “The power of YEN is that, by sharing data between farms, we could analyse in great detail how these growers managed to achieve those exceptional yields, and then share lessons learnt with other members to go and apply on their own farms.”

International uptake

While cereal and oilseeds YENs are 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.

According to Roger, this isn’t the end of YEN. “It’s fantastic to see other countries adopt the YEN concept for their own growers, having seen and been inspired by what we’re doing in the UK. We’ll continue to look at how we can further develop the Pea and Bean YENs, our grain analysis and benchmarking service YEN Nutrition, and the crop carbon benchmarking network YEN Zero.”

If a suitably qualified organisation would like to take over the facilitation of the Cereals and Oilseeds YEN, ADAS would be open to discussions.

Roger concludes: “We’re very proud to have facilitated the UK cereals and oilseeds networks for 13 years, and incredibly grateful to all the farmers, sponsors, and supporters who have contributed along the way. We hope that the YEN initiative has had an overall positive impact on the British arable industry, and we welcome any ideas for continuing on or developing new initiatives that build on its achievements.”

The final Cereal and Oilseeds YEN Awards and conference will be held on 27 January 2026 in Peterborough.