Oilseed Rape Nationwide Performance Gains

From Oxfordshire to Lincolnshire and Worcestershire to Norfolk, DEKALB growers across the country are reporting farm yields substantially higher than last season in a remarkably smooth harvest, confirming the improvements seen in both plot and large scale trials with high-reliability DK hybrids.

DK Excited stands out as the top-performing of the hybrid varieties James Price has been evaluating at scale alongside his current crop at Perdiswell Farm, Woodstock on the edge of the Cotswolds.

The main 34ha trial field on his thin brash land matched this year’s farm average of 3.9t/ha – encouragingly up from just over 3t/ha in 2021. Substantially outperforming both this and the current RL leader grown alongside it, his 2ha of DK Excited averaged fully 4.6t/ha.

“It’s very much our first choice for a hybrid to balance our conventional OSR across the expanded area we’re growing for 2023 on the three farms we manage,” notes Mr Price.

 The star performer for award-winning grower, Mark Stubbs this season has definitely been DK Expectation.

With OSR yields across his north Lincolnshire farms a good 20% ahead of last season, it averaged almost exactly 6t/ha on 60ha of heavier coastal ground. On the lighter Wold land his 220ha of HOLL variety V367OL came in at creditable 4.5t/ha.

 “We’re happy with the HOLL but delighted with the DK Expectation which replaced the DK Exclaim that always did us well in the past,” says Mr Stubbs. “The best 9ha field went over the weighbridge at 6.5-7.0t/ha. “However, the real proof of the pudding was a large area of one field hammered by slugs that compensated fantastically well to average 4.5t/ha”.

RESILIENCE UNDER PRESSURE

Thankfully, cabbage stem flea beetle were notable for their absence at Springfields Farms in Worcestershire last autumn but the 30ha of OSR came under the worst pigeon pressure manager, Ben Knight has seen for at least five years. Even so, at a fraction over 4t/ha it averaged around 0.5t/ha more than in 2021 with really bold, heavy berries.

 “Helped by a front-loaded top dressing of N as soon as we could get on the ground, our DK Extremus recovered very well,” he reports. “We’re heartily glad we’ve always prioritised hybrids with early spring regrowth as well as fast autumn development.

“Across in Norfolk, Tim Barrell’s 36ha crop of DK Expectation was also around half a tonne a hectare up on last year at a ‘really satisfying’ 4.7t/ha. And this despite only being sown in mid-September and growing in the driest part of a very dry county this season.

“It may be a little short of our record yield, but we are over the moon with this,” says Mr Barrell. “Earlier harvesting as well as later drilling meant it had a month less time in the ground than 2021. Yet it still delivered the goods fantastically well.”

DRY AUTUMN DILEMMA

Bone dry soils across much of the eastern and southern counties are posing a huge dilemma for growers keen to sow their OSR early in their battle against flea beetle.

While showing crop survival and condition are definitely improved by earlier drilling where CSFB pressures are high, Bayer’s latest national OSR benchmarking study also clearly demonstrates crops can do as well from sowing in late August and early September if pressures from the pest aren’t so intense.

 At the same time, the 170-plus growers involved in the study identify only sowing when and if there is sufficient moisture as the single most successful risk reduction technique.

“Sowing patience will be a particular virtue this season,” advises Bayer head of seed, Adam Nears. “Even if this means holding-off until September to be sure there’s enough moisture for good establishment.

“Several years of our studies show hybrids have a particular edge over pure line varieties from sowing after August 20. And we know that hybrids with the speed of autumn development and resilience of DK Exsteel are especially valuable here.

“With the best establishment so critical to OSR success and CSFB again appearing rather less threatening in most areas, sowing the most suitable hybrids somewhat later than planned looks set to be the best strategy for many.

YIELDS IMPROVE AS HARVEST MOVES NORTH & WEST

Commercial farm strip trial yields are improving steadily from a strong base as northern and western results come in. Sites in Herefordshire, Shropshire and the Scottish Borders receiving more summer rain than most further south all produced over 6t/ha across the seven DEKALB Ex hybrids grown, pushing the whole trial average up from an earlier 4.32t/ha to 4.95/ha.

 Topping the site rankings this year so far is Rob Morgan at Home Farm, Acton Burnell in south Shropshire with a 9% moisture-adjusted average seed yield of 6.5t/ha. Like every other directly comparable site, this was a substantial improvement on both of the past two seasons.