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Yield-gap to potential

86% of water-limited potential

Actual yield expressed as a percentage of the water-limited potential yield the season could have grown. It separates the ceiling set by rainfall (which you can’t change) from the gap set by management (which you can).

Worked example · Actual ÷ water-limited potential
86% Achieved · 3.8 t/ha Gap · 0.6 t/ha of 4.4 t/ha potential
Actual ÷ water-limited potential
The benchmark

Across Australian grain paddocks the average crop reaches only about half of its water-limited potential; leading growers consistently close the gap to 80–90%.

Yield Gap Australia ↗
What it signals

The size of the gap is your improvement budget in tonnes. A persistent gap points at a fixable constraint — sowing date, nutrition, a soil limitation — rather than a run of bad seasons, and tells you where the next dollar of investment pays back.

Data required to calculate
Actual grain yieldt/haWater-limited potential yieldt/ha

Silo pulls each of these from the sources the operation already uses, and keeps the figure current automatically.

How to improve it
01

Diagnose the single biggest constraint per zone before spending broadly.

02

Address subsoil limitations — acidity, sodicity, compaction — that cap roots.

03

Fine-tune nitrogen timing to the season rather than a fixed budget.

Questions & answers

What is yield-gap to potential?

Actual yield expressed as a percentage of the water-limited potential yield the season could have grown. It separates the ceiling set by rainfall (which you can’t change) from the gap set by management (which you can).

What data do you need to calculate yield-gap to potential?

You need: Actual grain yield (t/ha), Water-limited potential yield (t/ha). Silo pulls each of these from the sources the operation already uses and keeps the figure current automatically.

What is a good yield-gap to potential benchmark?

Across Australian grain paddocks the average crop reaches only about half of its water-limited potential; leading growers consistently close the gap to 80–90%.

How do you improve yield-gap to potential?

Diagnose the single biggest constraint per zone before spending broadly. Address subsoil limitations — acidity, sodicity, compaction — that cap roots. Fine-tune nitrogen timing to the season rather than a fixed budget.

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