Does YEN actually help farmers?

[Steevo]

Just been watching some YEN presentations.

Does YEN really help farmers, or is it just a data source veiled as a competition for enabling researchers to progress their theories?
From what I can see the results are used to tweak existing theories which may be inaccurate to start.

Data is king today.

Like some precision farming, too much data can conflict of your science is flawed to start with and the assumptions are wrong.

I also wonder whether a PEN (profit enhancement network) would be much more beneficial to on the ground farmers, especially as BPS support looks like it will be declining fast.

 

[Brisel]

I'll say yes, with caveats.

YEN has helped show the best yielding growers what crop potential is, even if they won't necessarily talk about what the margin was for all the attempts made on the way to winning. Showcasing the best does help inspire the rest of us. If nothing else, it's a good talking point to show what good snake oil salesmen can achieve!

I don't want to belittle anything the top yielders have achieved like our own @Richard Budd 's success with his winning osr crop not bought with excessive inputs.

 

[Gong Farmer]

Data is king today.

Margin should be king. (Edit: profit is a dirty word, best use margin)

YEN will soon be a dirty word, I've said it before.

 

[Steevo]

Margin should be king. (Edit: profit is a dirty word, best use margin)

YEN will soon be a dirty word, I've said it before.

Profit/margin on the growing crop is king for farmers.

Data seems to be king for all agriculture related industries who seek to use agriculture to further their own ends. Be that suppliers, consultants, research teams, Proagrica/Farmplan etc.


I get the feeling ADAS are feathering their own nest from that perspective - more interested in using the data for further research, funding etc. Too much theoretical research based on models etc. rather than actually drawing conclusions that enable the wider farming community to learn/benefit.

Setting aside the other factor which is of course that that farmers rarely profit from productivity gains themselves anyway, so it could be argued that striving for higher production is actually worse for UK agriculture.

 

[SilliamWhale]

In a way crop yields haven't really developed over the years because of the farmers technical excellence - sure we have a role to play but I'd say better fungicides and breeding have been the main things.

I think the most interesting way of trialling a theory about technical excellence is to chose 6-10 of those farmers purporting to get very high yields from their technical excellence (not knocking them by the way) and then seeing how each of them would crop a few random fields around the country and what prescriptions they would use for each field/ crop. I'd wager each of those farmers would have relative highs and lows in each plot and therefore further randomising the "technical excellence" argument.

I don't think you learn as much from one man farming his one patch or taking one result in isolation (however excellent the result is) as others do. However I admit I do usually end up thinking different to the majority for some reason

Profit Enhancement Network In Soils maybe isn't the best acronym though

 

[Shutesy]

Profit Enhancement Network In Soils maybe isn't the best acronym though

 

[ajd132]

I can’t really take it seriously, look at the companies that sponsor it.
Tim lammyman spend £700/ha on variable costs in his osr as shown at the osr masters event a couple of years ago. The overheads were very high too. That is not good risk management and not something to aspire to.
Profit enhancement network with no sponsors with skin in the input sales game and I would be really keen.

 

[mo!]

In a way crop yields haven't really developed over the years because of the farmers technical excellence - sure we have a role to play but I'd say better fungicides and breeding have been the main things.

I think the most interesting way of trialling a theory about technical excellence is to chose 6-10 of those farmers purporting to get very high yields from their technical excellence (not knocking them by the way) and then seeing how each of them would crop a few random fields around the country and what prescriptions they would use for each field/ crop. I'd wager each of those farmers would have relative highs and lows in each plot and therefore further randomising the "technical excellence" argument.

I don't think you learn as much from one man farming his one patch or taking one result in isolation (however excellent the result is) as others do. However I admit I do usually end up thinking different to the majority for some reason

Profit Enhancement Network In Soils maybe isn't the best acronym though

Cereals Utilising New Technology?

 

[fudge]

I can’t really take it seriously, look at the companies that sponsor it.
Tim lammyman spend £700/ha on variable costs in his osr as shown at the osr masters event a couple of years ago. The overheads were very high too. That is not good risk management and not something to aspire to.
Profit enhancement network with no sponsors with skin in the input sales game and I would be really keen.

You would end up benchmarking yourself against luddites like me who spend f all!?