Industry recognises Roger Sylvester-Bradley's contribution to agricultural science
This week, the Royal Agricultural Society of England (RASE) awarded Professor Roger Sylvester-Bradley, Head of Crop Performance at ADAS, with the RASE 2025 Science and Technology Award, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to agricultural science.
For over four decades, Roger has been at the forefront of agricultural science, shaping the way we understand and manage crop performance.
After earning his PhD from the University of East Anglia in 1979, Roger began working as a plant pathologist with ADAS based in Wolverhampton
Since then, he has authored more than 250 publications, including papers in scientific journals as well as important industry reports, which have directly influenced on-farm practice and led to improvements in farm productivity and profitability.
As a crop physiologist with ADAS, Roger has dedicated his career to addressing the most pressing challenges facing farmers. In 1990, Roger teamed up with the Professor of Agriculture at the University of Nottingham, Keith Scott, to set up the University of Nottingham and ADAS Centre for Research in Agronomy. This highly productive partnership generated new ideas and insights into crop growth and development, canopy management, optimum seed rate, lodging control, and other applied agronomy topics.
One of Roger’s most influential research contributions was the development of canopy management principles which defined what green area index wheat farmers should be targeting, and how much nitrogen fertiliser they should apply to optimise yields. It also paved the way for canopy management principles used today in oilseed rape.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Roger led experimental work that underpins the widely used Wheat Growth Guide, a vital tool used by farmers and agronomists to optimise crop growth and yield.
In 2004, Roger’s work on the yield potential of crops and livestock culminated in a well-regarded book – Sylvester-Bradley, R. & Wiseman, J. Eds. (2005). Yields of farmed species: constraints and opportunities in the 21st century. Nottingham University Press. 651 pp.
Between 2009 and 2014, Roger led the Defra LINK project Minimising nitrous oxide intensities of arable crop products’ (MIN-NO), which redefined our understanding of nitrous oxide emissions from fertiliser use. The project’s findings enabled more accurate emissions reporting for UK arable crops, challenging long-held assumptions and influencing environmental policy.
Championing action research
In recent years, Roger launched the Yield Enhancement Network (YEN)—a collaborative initiative that has brought together hundreds of farmers, agronomists, and researchers to tackle the yield plateau challenge. In the 13 years since it began, YEN has become a hub for innovation, data sharing, and on-farm experimentation. YEN members include the current world record-holder for winter wheat yield. Roger continues to champion action research and the value of field-scale experimentation and data-sharing to understand farm effects on yield.
Since 2015, Roger has advocated the use of grain nutrient analysis to diagnose crop nutrient deficiencies. His guidance on grain analysis has since been integrated into the AHDB Nutrient Management Guide (RB209), a key resource for nutrient planning across England and Wales.
Technical Director for Crop Physiology and Roger’s colleague Dr Pete Berry said:
“This award is a fitting acknowledgement of an exceptional 40-year research career that has broadened our understanding of the principles behind arable crop productivity. Roger’s research contributions to the agricultural industry have been groundbreaking and far-reaching, and his continued enthusiasm has inspired countless scientists, researchers, agronomists, and farmers to push the boundaries of crop production and find ‘what works’.
Congratulations to Roger from all his team and colleagues at ADAS on this RASE award and his incredible achievements.”