Excellent early farm trial performance

Excellent early farm trial performance

The first seven large scale farm strip trials to be harvested this season across southern and eastern England are confirming the strong performance promise of leading DEKALB hybrids in no uncertain terms.Combined a good two weeks earlier than last year and in much better condition, all seven currently available mainstream double low varieties included in our trials delivered average seed yields comfortably in excess of 4t/ha,” reports Bayer trials manager, Richard Williams.“We take yield measurements from at least a half hectare of each variety grown side-by-side in strips of up to 3ha under a range of strictly commercial farm management regimes. Although unreplicated, this ensures the trials give us the most realistic comparison of varieties’ actual farm performance abilities we can get.”Varying from 3.48t/ha on the lowest potential site to 5.22t/ha on the highest, yields across the seven sites averaged a very welcome 4.32t/ha at 9% moisture.What’s more, the DEKALB hybrids not carrying TuYV resistance – DK Exstar, DK Exsteel, DK Extremus and DK Expansion – averaged the same as those with the trait – DK Exposé, DK Excited and DK Expectation – underlining the value of the varieties as much as any individual trait.While, DK Excited is the best-performing TuYV resistant hybrid in the trials so far, DK Extremus is leading the non-TuYV field at just over the half-way stage in their harvesting. “Reflecting the improvement in performance we are generally seeing this season, on the four sites where we had the same strip trials last year – albeit with a slightly different set of varieties – we are currently seeing average yield improvements ranging from 6% to 34%,” Richard Williams says. “This is adds to what is looking like one of the best ear’s ever for OSR profitability for many.”

FURTHER HAMPSHIRE IMPROVEMENT

At Breamore Estate in Hampshire, manager David Northway has seen his oilseed rape performance improve still further from the welcome bounce back of 2021; and this, despite not drilling his crops until early September. Having almost exactly doubled the farm’s 2020 average to 4t/ha last season, this year’s 50/50 combination of DK Exsteel and DK Expectation delivered 4.3t/ha at 6% moisture – equivalent to almost 4.5t/ha at 9% moisture.Take away pigeon-damaged areas on a shooting estate where gas gun siting has to be carefully controlled and David reckons real crop yields have been above 5t/ha. “This year has been a perfect storm for our OSR but in the right direction,” he says. ”Even though we couldn’t get our 100ha sown before September we’ve had our best season for a good while. The crops were drilled with a specialist seedbed fertiliser and a range of companion crops as trials.“A decent amount of moisture and a nice open autumn really helped. As did fewer flea beetles than we’ve seen for several years and little spring larval damage. “Good prices have been the icing on the cake, this season. And, thankfully, there aren’t nearly so many beetles about in our harvested grain either,” he notes. “We’ll be growing about the same area of OSR again for 2023, hoping to take advantage of the earlier harvest to drill it by mid-August. We’ve been lucky enough to have some July rain but still need more for the greatest establishment confidence.”

PROOF POSITIVE FROM INITIAL REPLICATED TRIAL

An average seed yield of 5.03t/ha from 23 existing commercial and DEKALB pipeline varieties grown under farm regimes in the earliest harvested of Bayer’s replicated plot trials is further proof of the season’s encouraging winter OSR position. Interestingly, while the 16 mainstream ‘double low’ hybrids included in the trials averaged 5.15t/ha, the four DEKALB Clearfield varieties were not far behind them at 5.05t/ha, with current HOLL leader, V367OL averaging 5.02t/ha and a promising new clubroot and TuYV-resistant variety 5.07t/ha. Highlighting the difference growers should expect between small plot and field scale performance – even under farm regimes rather than input-maximising trial protocols – the seven current DEKALB hybrids in these trials delivered an average seed yield of 5.11t/ha – a good 0.8t/ha ahead of their strip trial average.  

 The DEKALB Difference

ESTABLISHMENT ASSURANCE

All DEKALB hybrids are now covered by Bayer’s market-leading establishment assurance scheme, offering growers refunds of £100 per 1.5 million seed bag through their suppliers for any blocks of more than 6ha sown before September 20 that fail to establish by the end of October. Full details of the minimum hassle scheme are available here.