Testing smarter nitrogen approaches at Strategic Cereal Farms

Our Knowledge Transfer Manager, Ellie Dearlove, provides an update on our Strategic Cereal Farm trials that are rethinking how nitrogen is applied in winter wheat (and how you can visit the trial sites in June).

With fertiliser prices volatile, the challenge is how to maximise the return from every kilogram of nitrogen applied.

Across Britain's fields, it is estimated that 35% of applied nitrogen never reaches the crop.

It is why our Strategic Cereal Farms run practical, on-farm trials to judge how to use nutrients more efficiently.

Based on blanket applications, traditional fertiliser programmes fail to account for in-field variation in crop nitrogen requirements.

As this variation is often large, it makes a one-size-fits-all approach inefficient.

Strategic Cereal Farm East host David Jones (Morley Farms) has spent several years working with Niab to investigate the variation across his farm.

David says:

“Nitrogen fertiliser is not cheap. Recently, it has become eye-wateringly expensive.

"Some parts of my field are never going to produce good yields. I want to find ways to use nitrogen more efficiently.”

The current trials use soil electrical conductivity scans and yield maps from 12 production years to divide fields into seven management zones.

We use the results to identify differences in soil texture, stone content and water-holding capacity, as well as the economic optimum nitrogen rate.

The results have been significant in the two full trial years investigated to date.

The economic optimum nitrogen rate varied by almost 80 kg N/ha across the winter wheat field.

For example, some areas consistently required around 180 to 190 kg N/ha, whereas others only needed 100 to 120 kg N/ha.

Importantly, the high-yielding areas did not always require the most nitrogen and the lower-performing zones did not always benefit from more fertiliser.

The nitrogen-response variation was not random, but it was influenced by a complex combination of factors, including:

• Soil organic matter
• Water availability
• Background nitrogen supply
• Nutrient limitations
• The weather

The trials continue this season.

We're using the results to strengthen the farm’s database and plan to compare measured nitrogen optima against recommendations generated by decision-support tools and technologies.

At Strategic Cereal Farm East, we also investigated how a foliar polymer urea product (MZ28) compared with the standard soil-applied nitrogen approach at the final application timing in winter wheat (40 kg N/ha).

In the split-tramline, the standard approach consistently outperformed the polymer product in both trial years.

The standard approach increased grain nitrogen uptake by around 15 kg N/ha and delivered about 0.4 t/ha greater yield compared to the polymer product and no nitrogen (untreated) at this timing.  

It also delivered around a £22/ha additional margin over the untreated plots.

The consistency of the results (in contrasting wet and drought-affected seasons) gave the farm confidence to keep to the standard approach and stop using MZ28.

We saw similar results for MZ28 at Strategic Farm North (Church Farm) with David Blacker.

David Blacker is now working with ADAS to investigate the main limiting factors that affect crop performance.

The research looks beyond major nutrients, because balanced nutrition is critical for the effective use of all nutrients.

We’re using broad-spectrum tissue testing throughout the season to monitor nutrients levels (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, B, Cu, Fe, Mn, Mo, Zn) and address deficiencies with foliar applications (in the ‘active management’ approach).

We’re also investigating knock-on effects on disease.

In winter wheat (harvest 2025), active management improved yield and reduced yellow rust severity compared to tramlines that followed farm standard nitrogen applications and did not receive a fungicide programme.

However, the financial return was not quite enough to offset the additional costs of products and testing.

We used a simple fungicide programme, which only cost £18/ha but generated £254/ha in extra yield, even though this trial was done in a generally dry and low-disease-pressure season.

The benefits of active management could be clearer in a season with higher disease pressure or if the programme is started earlier.  

The work continues this year in winter beans.

Strategic Cereal Farm Midlands host Will Oliver (Osbaston House Farm) joined the network last year and is also investigating nitrogen.

One task is to use models and sensors to identify optimum nitrogen rates (with Niab).

Will is also examining how to account for manure nutrients from his poultry enterprise to reduce reliance on inorganic fertiliser and improve gross margins.

It is something that is becoming increasingly important on mixed farms.

Sign up to visit a Strategic Cereal Farm open day this summer to explore the trials and discuss the results:

• Will Oliver: Strategic Farm Midlands Open Day (3 June)
• David Jones: Strategic Farm East Open Day (18 June)
• David Blacker: Strategic Farm North Open Day (24 June)

Why not check out other programmes that explore nitrogen management?

For example, the Framework for Improving Nitrogen Efficiency (FINE) programme has already worked with 50 farmers (including our strategic cereal farmers) over three harvests.

Funded by DEFRA and Innovate UK (until March 2027), participants have seen average nitrogen reductions of around 15% in wheat (reducing the average nitrogen rate from 203 kg/ha to 171 kg/ha), while maintaining comparable yields at most sites (87%).

Farmers involved in FINE trials achieved improvements in margin over nitrogen of up to £90 per hectare.

In this project, farmers are using the AgAnalyst DataBaler to combine field data, satellite information and soil analysis results to target nitrogen.

Visit the FINE website to:

• Get the latest findings and event news
• Join FINE for free (for farmers and advisers)