Plant sap analysis included in Guinness World Record attempt

Vagn Lundsteen has been a private agricultural advisor since 1999 and in 2014 he started his current company AgroPro Danmark, which is one of Denmark's largest advisory firms, and has customers on 150,000 ha in Denmark. In their advice, Vagn and his colleagues use new knowledge from, for example, Germany and the UK, which is tested directly in the field in Denmark. AgroPro does not wait for several years of Danish trials, otherwise they would be behind all the time.

AgroPro has participated in Guinness World Record trials for record harvest of winter wheat three times with their project GWR18 where Vagn Lundsteen is the leader. See their Danish facebook page (search: Project GWR 18). The world record attempt refers to the average harvest of at least 8 ha of cultivation of winter wheat. The last time they participated was last year (2022) and they managed to reach the amazing position of 3rd place among YEN members (252). YEN, Yield Enhancement Network, is a network of farmers, advisors and researchers (mainly in Europe) who strive to continuously improve cultivation through documentation and monitoring.

On June 21, 2022, Vagn and Project GWR 18 assessed that the 18 tons/ha target was within reach. But it is at the end that it will be determined whether everything is on track or whether there will be a limiting factor. There was a dry spell and there was not enough rainfall to convert all the energy in the crop into barley. The final result was 16.3 tons/ha which is fantastic! Protein content was 12.7% compared to the normal 10.5% at that level of harvest, which is thought to be a result of the lack of rain. The high protein content indicates that the harvest could have been even higher if the rainfall had been more abundant.

The winner of the world record for winter wheat was Tim Lamyman from the North of England and he managed to harvest 17.95 tons/ha. He has also previously won world records for both winter barley and oilseed rape. We asked Vagn about the characteristics of Tim Lamyman that may have contributed to his outstanding results. The answer is that Tim has a formidable ability to read and control the plant continuously. Every week he foliar fertilizes the plants with low doses of various macro- and micronutrients that constantly affect growth, according to the plants' needs.

Vagn Lundsteen also advocates regular foliar fertilization of the crop. In his advice, he recommends foliar fertilization to his customers based on the results of the plant sap analyses. Even in the world record trial, he based foliar fertilization decisions on repeated plant sap analyses, which show the uptake of plant nutrients in the very recent period before sampling. He believes that elements such as boron and molybdenum are much more important than you think even in cereals! He also added a little extra nitrogen each time because nitrogen drives the uptake of other plant nutrients.