THE NORTHERN hemisphere has reclaimed its title for the world record highest yielding wheat crop. Lincolnshire, England, farmer Tim Lamyman entered the crop in awards held by research body the Yield Enhancement Network and was late last month officially ratified as the record holder. He peeled off an incredible 17.96 tonnes a hectare in an 8.29ha paddock harvested in August last year. It knocks off a crop grown by Canterbury Plains, NZ, farmer Eric Watson of 17.4t/ha. The figures dwarf the average Aussie wheat crop. Yield data from Statista shows average Australian wheat yields for 2013-2023 are around 2.35t/ha. RELATED: Wheat record smashed RELATED: New Zealand's world record wheat crop Australia's Hyper-Yielding Crops project has been set up to push the boundaries of broadacre crop yields and high rainfall zone yields have pushed well above 10t/ha, but not close to the monster yields seen in England and New Zealand. Mr Lamyman farms at Louth, in eastern Lincolnshire, around 25km from England's east coast in a region traditionally regarded as one of England's breadbaskets. Incredibly, Mr Lamyman also smashed the world barley crop in the same season with a 16.2t/ha crop, while YEN officials said they believed his 9t/ha canola crop would be a record if there was an official authority to register it. Roger Sylvester-Bradley, YEN director, said Mr Lamyman's crop was not the result of throwing the kitchen sink at inputs but rather a keen appreciation of the crop's needs. "It doesn't mean huge expense on seeds, fertilisers and sprays; it means intensive appreciation of and attention to his crops' needs, and frequent treatments so that his crops experience a minimum of setbacks," Prof Sylvester-Bradley said. "Tim's crops belie the common suspicion that large yields require large inputs, he knows his main inputs are light energy and water which come free if his crops can capture them." South Australian research Allan Mayfield said the fact such high yielding crops could be grown with commercially viable rates of crop inputs showed yield curves could be challenged. "We've seen average wheat yields in those highly productive parts of New Zealand and Europe stagnate over the past 20 years," Mr Mayfield said. Dr Mayfield said the paddock used to grow the record crop had not been treated specially within the rotation. "It was just a standard wheat, canola, barley, wheat rotation, the difference lies in the attention to detail," he said. The statistics behind the crop make incredible reading. Dr Mayfield said there were a monstrous 500 heads per square metres, with a whopping 73 grains per head, averaging about 48g per head. While the fertiliser requirements were large in Australian terms, based on the rule of thumb of 25kg of nitrogen per tonne of wheat, Mr Lamyman's 314kg/ha of N presented good value for money.