Miscanthus is noticeably
slower to establish on clay soils as shown by fitting a logistic Gompertz equation to yield time series.
However, gaps in crop cover as identified by density counts, visual inspection (Google Earth) and remote
sensing (Landsat-5) correlated with observed on-farm yields suggesting patchiness as causal for reduced
yields. The analysis shows ways to improve the agronomy for these new crops to increase economic
returns within the supply chain and the environmental benefits (reduced GHG emission, greater carbon
sequestration) and reduce the land demand of bio-energy production.
Crown Copyright © 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license