The PGRO is urging pea and bean growers to sign up to its newly launched Pulse Performance Network (PPN) ahead of autumn drilling. 

The network marks the next chapter for the pea and bean Yield Enhancement Networks (YEN), which have enabled growers, agronomists, researchers and industry partners to benchmark pulse performance for the past decade.

Now under the PGRO's governance, the scheme has evolved for the 2026/27 season with a clear focus on making participation easy and turning farm data into practical information growers can use to their advantage.

Sponsors are also being invited to fund growers through the PPN with the opportunity to build a focus group within which to evaluate a product, new technology, or agronomic practice. 

Erin Matlock, Research Agronomist at PGRO, says: "We want growers to consider taking part in the PPN as part of their planning process for next year's cropping.

"We have made it easier for growers to benchmark their crops, understand what is driving performance and turn that information into decisions they can use on farm.

"The PPN builds on everything that has worked well in the pulse YENs over the past 10 years, while introducing a more streamlined approach and new technology to make participation easier and more valuable."

Making benchmarking easier for growers

At the heart of the PPN is a simple idea. Rather than just comparing one grower's yield against another, the network looks at how an individual field has performed against its own yield potential.

"The benchmarking and analysis are carried out independently by PGRO, and the whole approach has been designed specifically around pulse production," explains Erin.

"That gives us something much more meaningful than simply producing a league table of the highest-yielding crops."

There is a strong emphasis on simplified data capture, reduced administration and clearer, more actionable results.

A new PPN app allows growers to record information directly in the field, capturing details such as drilling dates, seed rates and applications as they happen rather than relying on end-of-season data entry.

An annual report will include a front-page summary of overall performance, achievements and opportunities, alongside comparisons with a five-year average and a greater focus on yield potential achieved and efficiency, rather than simply ranking crops by absolute yield.

Working together

The new PPN also creates opportunities for industry sponsors to work with groups of growers around a shared concept or area of interest.

Sponsor-led focus groups will enable several growers to test the same concept under real farm conditions, generating field-scale data that can provide commercially relevant insight into how an approach performs across different farms and environments.

This creates two complementary levels of information: performance within an individual field and comparative performance across the wider PPN dataset.

"For sponsors, the model provides an opportunity to engage directly with growers and support the evaluation of products, technologies, ideas or agronomic approaches under real commercial conditions," says Erin.

"It isn't just about proving that something works. Finding out where a product or approach performs well — and where it doesn't — can be just as valuable as this can help identify opportunities to refine products, improve recommendations or determine where further work is needed."

Registrations for the PPN are now open at https://www.pgro.org/pulse-performance-network/