Yorkshire

Developing LENs trading at pace and at scale

Yorkshire is a developing LENs region stretching from North Yorkshire down to the Lincolnshire border. Now in its fourth year, this project convenes two of LENs’ core strategic partners on the demand side – Nestlé Purina and Diageo – to support a range of regenerative agriculture practices. The companies seek to work with supply chain partners to build production resilience and on-farm sustainability, as well delivering for biodiversity and water quality. Openfield Group and Frontier Agriculture are involved as supply aggregators, engaging their farmer customer networks and developing measure proposals in collaboration with farmers looking to secure funding through LENs.

Yorkshire represents an exciting opportunity in the development of LENs to demonstrate how impactful landscape outcomes can be delivered with the assistance of an engaged network of local experts and stakeholders. In addition to our funders, Nestlé Purina and Diageo, Yorkshire Water contributes to the programme, while the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority is also helping to connect local initiatives and organisations to increase the scope and impact of LENs activities.

The 2025 trade saw £466,378 invested in 21 different types of regenerative measures, with 23 farms involved across the region and more than 23,800 hectares worth of measures contracted. 

Popular measures included:

Companion cropping: companion crops are a range of species planted alongside the cash crop either before or at planting, to help aid crop establishment by giving some protection from pests, increasing beneficial predatory insects and improving soil health. The goal is to improve soil structure and help manage the cabbage stem flea beetle. 

Mechanical weeding in place of pesticides: using man-made mechanical (and/or autonomous) weed control implements to physically remove or destroy weeds rather than place greater dependency on herbicides / active ingredients. This is particularly advantageous for farmers transitioning to organic farming or looking to reduce herbicide usage and weed resistance. 

Incorporate inhibitors with fertilisers: nitrification inhibitors slow the microbial conversion of ammonium nitrate to nitrates (nitrification), reducing the risk of loss through leaching or denitrification, and improving nitrogen use efficiency. 

Farmer innovation funding, through open proposal routes for in-field trials and capital items, has also been a major feature of delivery in the region. In 2025, these included:

Precision nitrogen management in wheat, including sensor- and imagery-led approaches to map crop nitrogen status and guide more precise timing and targeting of nitrogen applications. These approaches help growers identify under- and over-fertilised areas, improve nitrogen use efficiency, reduce avoidable losses, and maintain yield and grain quality with lower synthetic input use.

Uniform cropping through targeted inputs, such as variable-rate seeding and split nitrogen applications, to improve crop consistency and input efficiency. By responding to within-field variability, these approaches aim to deliver steadier crop growth, better nutrient uptake and more consistent yields, while reducing the risk of losses to the environment.

Grazing livestock on wheat to reduce pesticide and fertiliser use. This approach uses sheep grazing in winter wheat to manage excess early growth, reduce disease and lodging risk, and lower the need for chemical inputs later in the season. It can also encourage tillering and support yield potential with fewer synthetic inputs.

Intercropping and legume-based innovations to reduce inorganic nitrogen use, including trials of legumes within arable rotations and mixed cropping systems designed to improve nutrient efficiency and crop resilience.

Agroforestry innovation,  where alleys of agroforestry have been planned with arable strips in between, collecting tree seed to support the on-farm tree nursery. 

Measurement, Reporting and Verification

2026 is the second year of Measurement, Reporting and Verification for Yorkshire, looking at the impact of the 2025 trade. Led by the LENs MRV team, with ADAS and Agricarbon, it is supporting farmers to gather data that shows how farm practices are changing over time. The result is a stronger evidence base for tracking progress, understanding the impact of investments, and building a clearer picture of sustainability and resilience across the region.

LENs MRV is built to be credible, practical and evidence-led. It combines farm-level data, independent verification and year-on-year tracking to give funders and farmers a robust picture of real on-farm impact, aligned with leading frameworks such as GHG Protocol and SBTi FLAG. Read the most recent LENs MRV report.