DOI: 10.23637/rothamsted.00033637
title: Silage and Arable yields and grain quality on the North Wyke Farm Platform, 2011-2025

description: This dataset contains yield data for silage and arable crops on the North Wyke Farm Platform (NWFP) in SW England between 2011 and 2025. The moisture content and dry matter yield per hectare are given for silage, grain and straw, as well as grain quality measurements such as protein, 1000-grain weight, Hapberg Falling Number and element concentrations.
description: The data collection took place on the North Wyke Farm Platform (NWFP), a UK National Bioscience Research Infrastructure in SW England. The NWFP is split into a number of self-contained farms (‘farmlets’) that are managed according to different operational philosophies or practices. The NWFP is highly instrumented and monitored, and core NWFP datasets are open access and include in-situ water flow and chemistry taken at 15-minute intervals; 15-minute Met measurements; 15-minute soil moisture measurements; 30-minute GHG emissions; soils, crop and botanical field survey data; livestock and crop performance data; farm operational activities, and contextual information. This additional data can be found at https://nw-farmplatform.rothamsted.ac.uk/, and the related output section contains a link to a user guide detailing the NWFP design and data collections.

The design of the NWFP allows comparison of the farmlets, and the crops growing on them. Crops have included permanent grassland, high sugar grass, high sugar grass with clover, winter wheat, winter oats, spring oats, and winter beans. Some farmlets have moved from pasture to arable during the timescale of the experiment, and the choice of arable crop varies from year to year. To understand what crops were in place and when, the NWFP design user guide (linked in the related output section) should be consulted.

Data are provided in the files Silage.csv, Arable.csv and GrainQuality.csv. Descriptions of the data to be found in each column of each file can be found in Column_units_and_descriptors.csv, and some more detailed explanations of some aspects are given below.

Note that the ‘Experiment_ID’ column is not unique. These appear in the format NWxxx-yy, where xxx is a 3 digit code specific to the harvest year. In the silage data, yy is either S1 or S2, to indicate whether the harvest was first or second cut silage. In the arable data, yy is either WW (winter wheat), WO (winter oats) or SO (spring oats). 

The area given in the data is specifically harvest area, and not field size. Therefore, a field that was initially silage but later used for arable crops may show slightly different harvest areas. The field named ‘Burrows’ increased in harvest area between 2012 and 2014 due to reconfiguration of its boundaries. Users should also be aware that two fields, previously known as ‘Little Pecketsford’ and ‘Pecketsford’, were combined in 2019, and from this date the yields are shown under the field name ‘Pecketsford (whole)’. Similarly, the field known as ‘Orchard Dean’ was split into ‘Orchard Dean North’ and ‘Orchard Dean South’ in 2015. 

Silage data contains some field splits. These occur when the grazing livestock require less grass than the farmlet is producing, and part of a field that was expected to be grazed is instead used for silage production. These fields are indicated using the temporary field name in the ‘Field split’ column, and the harvest area is given only for the silage area of the field. 

The method of determining silage yield has varied over time. Initially, a Haldrup (whole-plant forage harvester designed for small plots) was used. Later, a weighbridge was used to determine the difference between empty and full silage trailer weights.