Farmers who participate receive detailed reports about their fields
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Agronomists and researchers in Ontario are looking for farmers to participate in a crop program.
Members of the Great Lakes Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) is seeking winter wheat farmers to be part of the program for harvest 2022.
ADAS, a U.K.-based ag consultancy company, started the first YEN in 2012 to spur collaboration between industry partners, farmers and agronomists.
The Great Lakes YEN is modeled after the British one.
Interested Ontario producers pay $250 to be a YEN site and are asked to collect and share soil, crop, input, management and environmental data with researchers.
The collected data will be used to assemble detailed reports, said Marty Vermey, senior agronomist with Grain Farmers of Ontario.
“At the end, farmers who participate will receive about a 20-page report which benchmarks their values compared to other farmers in the network,” Vermey told Farms.com. “A farmer can then look at this report and identify where the differences were compared to other growers and see how they can maximize their potential.”
Grain Farmers of Ontario, the University of Guelph and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs are working in collaboration with Michigan State University and the Michigan Wheat Program on the YEN.
Growers interested in participating in the program can apply now.
For harvest 2022, the Great Lakes YEN will be looking to work with at least 100 farmers split evenly between the U.S. Great Lakes region and Ontario.
“I’m hoping we can get a farmer from every county in Ontario,” Vermey said. “The environment is so different every year, so it would be great to have that kind of information from different parts of the province.”
Plans to include other crops like corn, soybeans, barley and oats in future YEN programs are being discussed, Vermey said