Steve Howatt

Appreciating Our Team

As the coordinator of the Yield Enhancement Network, Steve Howatt considers himself fortunate to have a front row seat to watch the program expand across the Maritimes.

Howatt took the post in 2024 after founding a crop research business based in PEI. Having led and participated in hundreds of field trials over several crops, Steve sees his work with the Atlantic Grains Council as a natural next phase of his professional career.

“I consider it a privilege to work with growers and to build on the success of those who started the program,” he said, singling out Dr. Aaron Mills of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, who brought the concept first to PEI and later throughout the Maritimes after learning about a similar program in the United Kingdom.

In 2025, the program boasted 155 fields and about 60 different growers throughout the region. The staple of crops has also grown throughout its history (the 2026 crop year will mark year eight for the program) with 2025 marking the first-year corn came under the YEN umbrella.

“The program is really designed to be effective across a number of crops, and we hope to continue to see it grow as we move forward,” he explained. “Right now, we have soybeans, small grains, winter wheat, grain and silage corn”.

He understands that participating in a program that encourages the sharing of growing secrets might sound counterintuitive to some producers, he views that as the real strength of the program. While the Maritimes was one of the first regions in Canada to become involved, it has since spread to other areas meaning growers can see how their best management practices stack up against their counterparts from across the country.

“Even if they are not involved with the program, more and more growers are paying attention to the success their fellow producers are having,” he said. In addition to having the opportunity to learn from each other, Steve said the council is producing fact sheets and holding seminars so “that helps us to broaden the reach and impact.”  It also helps growers think about participating to take a second look.

“Like the old saying goes ‘nothing succeeds like success.” the coordinator said. “Certainly, any participating grower will tell you that success doesn’t come without its challenges, but when you see an improvement to your yield the bottom line is that it is a pretty strong argument.”

Since Maritimes is far from major markets, improving yields while making production more efficient is a key ingredient to success.

Working with a network of contractors in the three provinces, Howatt explained he has taken over much of the leg work Aaron Mills did with growers during the early days of the program. Steve and his team sign up producers and visit the farms to collect the samples and yield data.

“I look after the PEI farmers and coordinate the collection of all that information from them,” he went on to say.

After the harvest winds down and the collection is complete, the attention then turns to analyzing the numbers and identifying fields and best practices that are generating the top returns. While the program has always determined yield as a percentage of total potential, a new element was introduced in 2024 that will become a permanent fixture going forward.

The measurement measures input costs against yield to show how additional inputs impacted the bottom line. The yield is multiplied by the average market price to the determined gross revenue, and the input costs are then subtracted off.

“With each subsequent year, we collect more data that is made in the Maritimes,” he explained. “In winter wheat alone, we have records for over 150 individual fields. We’re able to look at regional differences and between growing years.”

Howatt said they are also able to compare fields in terms of such variables as nitrogen use over time. The result is “on the ground proof from diverse fields regarding what practices can result in the best quality and best yield.  It is like running 150 trials.” The AGC team is looking forward to the 2026 field work, where there will be a name change from YEN to ACE (Atlantic Crop Enhancement).