Agility for Changing Markets and Rotations

Overview: Farming Flexibility for the Real World

The future of UK agriculture demands flexibility, resilience, and market savvy. Today’s growers aren’t just planting for a single market—they’re juggling price fluctuations, unpredictable weather, environmental compliance, and changing contracts thanks to new green incentives and food security needs. Sticking to rigid, single-purpose crops is increasingly risky, limiting the ability to adapt and thrive.

YieldMax Duo is our breakthrough solution: the UK’s first dual-purpose precision-bred hemp—delivering both strong grain and bast fibre yields from the same field. Through advanced gene-editing and farmer-informed design, we’re giving growers the power to pivot: optimising output for grain, fibre, or both, depending on market opportunities, weather, and rotational plans. It’s flexibility, built into every seed.

The Challenge: Farming at the Crossroads

British arable producers are under pressure like never before:

• Volatile Grain and Fibre Markets: Prices for both food/feed and fibre crops swing year to year, often for reasons beyond the farm gate—global supply, buyer preferences, or sudden import/export policy changes.
• Climate Uncertainty: Rainy harvests, heatwaves, or storms can sink one market’s prospects while leaving another intact.
• Strict Regulatory Frameworks: Ultra-low THC hemp is legally essential; environmental rules around soil health, carbon, and biodiversity are tightening.
• One-Track Crops: Most available hemp is bred for either grain or fibre, not both. Switching market focus mid-season is virtually impossible, restricting a farmer’s options and reducing contract negotiating power.

The Opportunity: A New Kind of Crop for a New Kind of Farm

Imagine a crop that lets you:

• Pivot market focus late in the season, depending on contracts and prices.
• Maximise both food and fibre output, ensuring no part of the crop goes to waste whatever the market brings.
• Comply with all environmental and legal standards, making the transition into hemp as low-risk as possible—even for new adopters.

YieldMax Duo is built to do all this, and more.

Our Innovation: YieldMax Duo — The First Flexible, Dual-Purpose Hemp for the UK

Precision Breeding for Maximum Versatility

YieldMax Duo is developed using the latest multiplex gene-editing techniques, combining insights from field, lab, and global hemp supply chains to deliver:

• Balanced Grain and Fibre Yields: Advanced genetics allow each plant to deliver significant harvests of both nutritious grain (for food and animal feed markets) and strong bast fibre (for construction, composites, and textiles). You can target one, both, or adjust the focus depending on your business needs.
• Uniform Height and Stable Morphology: Plants have synchronised, machine-friendly height and structure—with grain heads and stems maturing together for reliable mechanical harvest.
• Non-shattering Seed Heads: Grain losses at harvest are minimised, simplifying the leap to on-farm adoption—and boosting effective returns per hectare.
• Ultra-Low THC: Continuous compliance for Home Office regulation, food safety, and supply chain assurance.
• Mechanical Harvest Compatibility: Morphology and maturity are fine-tuned for single-pass harvesting—faster, easier, and more cost-effective than traditional split harvests.
• Digital Traceability: Full field-to-product records support ELMS requirements, carbon claims, and growing demand for sustainable sourcing.

Project Roadmap: From Discovery to Field Adoption

2025: Trait Validation and Baseline Trials

• Non-edited control hemp grown at Rothamsted Research, with extensive trait mapping for dual-use potential, setting benchmarks for grain and fibre under UK conditions.
• End-user engagement: Processors, millers, and food/feed buyers help specify desired quality attributes, residue limits, and contract triggers.

2026: Multiplex Gene Editing and Early Trials

• Precision edits target key pathways for grain size, fibre strength, synchronous flowering, and non-shattering heads.
• Early greenhouse and controlled environment trials validate gene-expression effects, with performance data benchmarked against market gold standards.

2027: Field-Ready YieldMax Duo Lines and Mechanical Harvest Trials

• Gene-edited YieldMax Duo lines sown at Rothamsted, tested for side-by-side grain and fibre yield, mechanical harvest compatibility, and THC compliance.
• On-farm demonstrations with early adopters, integrating current rotation and machinery setups for real-world feedback.

2028 Onwards: Commercial Adoption and Knowledge Exchange

• Wider rollout via pilot contracts, teleseed partnerships, and open days.
• Knowledge-sharing of best agronomy, harvest integration, ELMS-fit stewardship, and market insights so growers maximise returns and resilience.

Why YieldMax Duo? Key Benefits for British Producers

1. Market Agility—Optimise Returns When It Matters

• Flexibly target grain, fibre, or both—so if prices drop in one sector, profits can still be realised elsewhere.
• Greater contract security: sell to multiple markets, reduce overexposure, and build relationships with both food/feed and fibre buyers.

2. Risk Management Built-In

• If the weather jeopardises fibre quality but grain is still sound (or vice versa), you don’t lose the entire season’s income.
• Smoother integration into rotation—fit the crop where it’s needed without worrying about single-purpose bottlenecks.

3. Environmental Gains and Compliance

• Full fit for ELMS (Environmental Land Management Schemes): soil regeneration, cover cropping, biodiversity benefits and carbon sequestration—plus traceable stewardship records for auditing.
• Ultra-low THC lines safeguard growers from legal/compliance risk.

4. Mechanical Harvest and Labour Savings

• Uniform crop architecture enables one-pass harvest, using standard UK combines and balers.
• Lower labour, minimised grain/fibre loss, and faster field turnaround for following crops.

5. Gateway Variety for New Growers

• Reduces learning curve and risk—ideal entry point for farms considering hemp for the first time.
• Full protocols, agronomy support, and grower training delivered as part of wider knowledge exchange.

Impact: Diversified, Resilient Farms for the 21st Century

• Future-proofs farm business: No more “putting all eggs in one basket”—YieldMax Duo brings robust diversification, smoothing volatility from year to year.
• Strengthens British food, fibre & feed supply chains: Enables processors, millers, and fibre buyers to trust domestic supply instead of relying on imports with patchy provenance.
• Supports green growth and climate targets: Hemp’s dual output, combined with its soil-regenerating capacity, helps build “circular” business models and meet DEFRA’s sustainability ambitions.
• Keeps British growers competitive: Delivers “farm agility” not available with legacy crop genetics—putting controlback into the hands of the people who know the land best.

Collaborative Development: Built by and for the Grower Community

YieldMax Duo thrives on partnership and open innovation:

• Scientist–Farmer Co-Design: Our teams at the University of Hertfordshire and Rothamsted Research work side-by-side with growers and machinery specialists, ensuring that YieldMax Duo fits real-world agronomy, not just laboratory theory.
• Processor and Market Integration: Fibre, food, and feed buyers help define quality specs, residue management, and desired traceability features—so new varieties deliver value from seed to final product.
• Data and Knowledge Sharing: All protocols, trait performance data, and best-practice guides are distributed via online portals, workshops, and field events to maximise impact and lower the barrier to entry.
• Stakeholder Engagement: We maintain a continuous feedback loop with DEFRA, Innovate UK, supply chain leaders, and rural advisors to ensure compliance, market fit, and long-term stewardship.

Alignment with DEFRA and Innovate UK Aims

YieldMax Duo directly supports key Government priorities:

• Productivity: Lifts overall output and profitability per hectare by making every field and harvest more adaptable and responsive.
• Resilience: Provides genuine risk reduction in the face of volatile weather and shifting market demands, building a foundation for secure agri-businesses.
• Sustainability/ELMS Alignment: Embedded low-input, regenerative cropping, with traceable stewardship—yielding clear, auditable environmental and carbon benefits.
• Knowledge Exchange: A pipeline for sharing genetics, practices, and co-developed solutions—enabling rapid sector-wide adoption and spreading benefits to new and established growers alike.

Get Involved: Try the Next Generation of Hemp

Are you:

• A forward-thinking grower who wants to reduce market risk, boost returns, and future-proof your rotation?
• A processor, manufacturer, or buyer seeking a reliable stream of sustainable, UK-grown grain and fibre—with the option to flex your sourcing as markets change?
• A researcher or advisor striving to help British farming adapt to the demands of net zero, circularity, and food security?
• A new entrant to hemp looking for a lower-risk, user-friendly way to access this high-potential crop?

YieldMax Duo is for you. Join our pilot trials, knowledge-sharing sessions, or co-design workshops. Together, we’ll set a new standard for crop flexibility, resilience, and profitability in British agriculture.

“YieldMax Duo is about putting adaptability back at the heart of British farming. With this new dual-purpose hemp, growers can be nimble, resilient, and ready for whatever the market or weather throws their way. That’s real innovation, rooted in our fields.”

YieldMax Duo—flexibility, productivity, and resilience, from every seed to every season.