YEN Nutrition

Grain analysis provides levels of all 12 essential nutrients: Nitrogen (N), Potassium (K), Phosphorus (P), Sulphur (S), Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), Manganese (Mn), Zinc (Zn), Copper (Cu), Iron (Fe), Boron (B), and Molybdenum (Mo). It completes the story started by soil analysis and developed by leaf analysis and reveals whether a crop actually captured enough of each nutrient throughout its entire life.

Grain analysis provides the ultimate check on: -

• Results of soil and leaf analysis
• Seasonal abnormalities
• Whether rooting etc. was adequate
• How well fertilisers and nutrient sprays etc. worked

Grain analyses on >1,000 YEN cereal crops have shown that 80% were probably deficient in at least one nutrient! We estimate that, at 2022 prices, the average YEN field (10 ha) stands to benefit by over £1,500 from having its nutrition fully optimised.

AThis is mainly by optimising nitrogen, but grain analyses also provide the most accurate estimates of nutrient offtakes, hence P&K requirements. This reduces unnecessary P&K applications, saving ~£350 on fertiliser costs per average field.

Routine grain analysis is now recommended in AHDB’s crop nutrition guide (RB209), the go-to guide for growers.  

By benchmarking your grain results against results from other crops, you can immediately see how well your crops’ nutrition ranked.

As more and more farms become involved in grain nutrient benchmarking, understanding of crop nutrient levels and yields will improve for all farms. YEN now reports ToCs (thresholds of concern) for all nutrients in all crops. These indicate whether your value was within the lowest quarter of all previous YEN crops; they relate well to the deficiency levels reported in the literature.

Our end-of-season overviews of entrants' nutrition data show that there are major differences between farms, as well as between fields. Hence, nutrition errors generally need to be checked and corrected farm by farm.

Once you have entered, you can add your farm, field and crop details through the YEN Nutrition Portal,  which then helps you manage your entries, share your results (anonymously) and benchmark your fields.  The process will be to ... 

• Enter your farm details (if you are new to YEN)
• Choose your lab and your sample kit delivery address
• Enter the fields you wish to sample, and sample names 
• Provide information about your crops, soils, and fertiliser inputs
• Receive a harvest sampling kit - please allow 10 days for this to arrive
• Take samples from each load as each field is harvested (instructions in your kit)
• Send all samples using bags provided in the kit to your chosen lab.
• Enter (on the YEN Nutrition Portal) the yield for each field and whether straw was removed
• Receive your reports, benchmark your results, highlight key issues, and better manage the nutrition of your next crops.

Farms with common links (e.g. the same agronomist, the same soil or location) should benefit from joining Nutrition Clubs where they can share and discuss (via Whatsapp or winter meetings) results from their nutrient management and crop analyses. Clubs can get expert nutritional guidance, and agree on questions that members could test.

ADAS is keen to help YEN members to obtain sponsorship or funding for these Clubs. Please email yen@adas.co.uk to access this support. See the 'YEN Nutrition Club Flyer' (in Resources) for further details.

Visit our Frequently Asked Questions(FAQs) webpage or contact