Record: wheat yield to 18 tons per hectare

Most arable farmers in the Netherlands are very satisfied with the 2022 harvest when it comes to winter grains. The yields were excellent, the quality was high and a lot of wheat has already been sold for a good price. Tim Lamyman, an English arable farmer from Lincolnshire who enjoys world records, goes one step further. A plot of Champion winter wheat yielded 17,96 tonnes per hectare, writes Farmer's Weekly.

Double record
With his wheat yield, Lamyman has improved the old record set in 2020 by New Zealand arable farmer Eric Watson. That stood at 17,4 tons per hectare. The Briton also broke the world record for winter barley, which was already in his hands. This now stands at 16,21 tons per hectare, more than 2 tons more than the old record. Finally, Lamyman's yield of 8,98 tons of rapeseed is also record-worthy, but this was not classified as a record attempt.

The total variable cultivation costs (seed, fertilizer and crop protection) of the record wheat plot came to £850. That is the equivalent of €950. A total of 314 kilos of nitrogen was spread and a liquid fertilizer containing nitrogen, phosphate and potassium was administered during the T3 crop spraying. Lamyman defends the fact that the nitrogen supply is considerably higher than average by the fact that the potential of his crop is also much greater and therefore deserves more fertilization. That is also considerably more than the 245 kilos of pure nitrogen that may be used in the Netherlands.

Yield competition
The arable farmer participates in the Yield Enhancement Network (YEN), which has now also been followed in other countries, including the Netherlands. CZAV has been conducting the YEN competition in our country for several years. Lamyman is also number one in the YEN overview, followed by a fellow arable farmer who harvested 16,7 tons/ha. In third place there is a Danish arable farmer who harvested 16,08 tons/ha.

According to YEN creator Roger Sylvester-Bradley, a wheat yield of 24 tons/ha is theoretically possible, he told the British trade magazine. "Many wheat crops achieved a yield of 14 tons/ha last year and the average over 200 YEN participants was 11,3 tons/ha. Higher yields are possible, as long as sufficient water is available. In times of drought, good root development is the most important. That was the case last season, as a result of which the wheat performed well despite the drought.

Soil underestimated
Sylvester-Bradley's goal is to better understand - with YEN - why certain crops yield much more than others. "The basis is very good soil quality," he says. "It is often underestimated how good the soil is and what the yield potential of a crop is."