The 2025 UK results: +£56.36/ha, independently validated by ADAS
Across 47 in-scope trials on commercial farms, Messium delivered an average gross margin benefit of £56.36 per hectare. Yield results were independently validated by ADAS Agronomics. Here is what we found, and how we measured it.
What we set out to prove
2025 was a season of technology validation. The aim was simple: show the typical benefit a grower can expect from Messium's nitrogen recommendations against their own farm-standard practice. We measured three things on each trial - the agronomic benefit (crop nitrogen uptake and efficiency), the commercial benefit (additional yield and gross margin), and whether the recommendations were sound.
Trials were run as split-field comparisons: one part of the field followed the farm's standard nitrogen plan, the other followed Messium. Same field, same weather, same soil - so the difference is the recommendation, not luck.
Independently validated by ADAS
We did not mark our own homework. ADAS - the UK's largest independent agronomy and environmental consultancy - validated the yield results using their Agronomics methodology. Agronomics looks at the underlying natural variation in a field before any treatment is applied, so a plot is never unfairly credited or penalised for ground that was always going to perform differently.
Messium funded this independent analysis at every site, with an individual ADAS report produced for each trial farm. Where ADAS found a plot had been compromised by unfair natural variation or by issues outside the recommendation itself, those trials were removed from the headline results.
The results, in scope
Looking only at the in-scope trials - those ADAS judged a fair comparison - Messium came out ahead in the great majority of cases:
NNI = Nitrogen Nutrition Index, a measure of how well-supplied the crop is with nitrogen relative to its optimum.
Three ways Messium added value
The benefit did not come from one trick. Across the trials, value showed up in three distinct ways:
A standout: Helix Cornwall
On one Cornish trial, the farm standard applied its third split in late March, but minimal rain meant little nitrogen reached the crop. Messium held off and timed the application to mid-April rains, matching supply to demand. By GS55 the Messium plot sat at an NNI of 1.35 while farm standard had slipped to 0.89 - mild deficiency.
Honest note: the data showed Messium's fourth split was slightly higher than ideal here - a touch less would have improved margin further. We report the misses alongside the wins.
The bottom line
A £56.36/ha average margin benefit, independently validated, in a hot and dry season - and on an early MVP product. As the satellite-led model and modelling mature, we expect that figure to keep climbing. Every farm received its own ADAS report, because results that can be checked are the only ones worth quoting.