In 2009, farmers growing a collective 573 ha of Miscanthus
responded to the first survey sent out by NE; in 2011, the response
to direct contacts was >90% which in conjunction with additional
contact through NE resulted in retrieval of information for a further
669 ha. Knowledge Transfer activities and farm visits within the
NERC-funded Microclimates project increased the area with background
information to >2100 ha. Of the approximate 2100 ha,
940 ha provided biomass yield data from crops planted >4 years
ago, which could be analysed to estimate a yield plateau by fitting
Equation (2) (see 3.2). The data set covered a similar number of sites
with yield data in 2011, which could be examined in relation to the
NDVI. Over all of the area, the average field size was about 6.7 ha.