LSPB announced today that the company is continuing its sponsorship of the Bean YEN yield enhancement network for a third year to support the knowledge transfer and benchmarking of UK bean growers that comes from this initiative run by ADAS in partnership with PGRO.

“As market leaders in spring bean varieties, we are proud to support the work going into the Bean YEN to enable improved and consistent performance of pulses for UK farm businesses,” commented Chris Guest, LSPB Managing Director. “This year LSPB will be taking a more hands on approach and be involved with a significant number of the sponsored memberships.”

The Bean YEN was set up in 2019 by ADAS in partnership with PGRO with the support of industry sponsors, including key developmental funding from LSPB. 

Membership is open to farmers, agronomists and researchers and allows growers to learn about their yield potentials, based on local conditions, and benchmark their bean yields against other growers. They can evaluate their crops using a variety of agronomic and other parameters with the objective of understanding how variations in these are linked to their on-farm bean yields.

To help accomplish this goal, membership brings growers a range of management tools including entrance into the Bean YEN benchmarking network, NRM soil analysis, Lancrop leaf tissue analysis and PGRO bruchid beetle damage assessment.

At the end of the season, all members will be provided with a comprehensive report, detailing how their crop performed compared to other crops in the YEN network, not as a competition but as collaborative exchange of information. 

The Results Conference, planned for this December, will be a forum for members to discuss their experiences with other members and see presentations of the year’s results.

“We hope that the increased knowledge from the Bean YEN initiatives will help increase bean yields on farm so that enhanced management techniques can add to the yield benefits from new and improved varieties,” adds Mr Guest.