Award-winning grower sees substantial improvements

With OSR yields across his north Lincolnshire coastal and Wolds farms up a good 20% on last season, award-winning grower, Mark Stubbs is well-pleased as he comes to the end of a trouble-free harvest.

Star performer this season has been DK Expectation grown on 60ha of heavier Marshchapel land averaging almost exactly 6t/ha and delivering up to 7t/ha over the weighbridge in places. The 220ha of HOLL rape on lighter ground at Calcethorpe has been more of a mixed picture, averaging from 1.5t/ha where establishment was problematic to 6.5t/ha or more where the crop got off to a good start.

“Overall, the V367OL is averaging out at around 4.5t/ha which certainly isn’t bad,” Mark Stubbs points out. “Variability has been the big problem here, though. Some of our later August sowings got badly hit by slugs – and maybe also flea beetle – and while they looked like recovering in the spring they weren’t able to compensate anywhere near enough. This just underlines how critical the first few weeks are for OSR.”

Even so, Mark doesn’t think his 2022 YEN crop which was amongst some of the best-established, will let him down in following-up three consecutive years of award-winning crops of 6.7t/ha or more. Especially so, since oil contents for both the HOLL and DK Expectation are coming back at between 47% and 49%.

“We’re happy with the HOLL but delighted with the DK Expectation which we tried for the first time last season to replace the DK Exclaim that did us proud for many years,” he stresses. “Our best 9ha field went over the weighbridge at 6.5-7.0t/ha. But 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.

“As it came into the spring we were seriously considering writing this crop off. But there were sufficient plants/m2 for us to give it a chance, and I’m heartily glad we did. Come April it showed the exceptional vigour we’ve always valued in Dekalb varieties to branch out and fill-in wonderfully well.

“The variety has certainly lived up to its name, more than meeting our expectations and giving us the faith to sow it across most of the OSR area on a farm we have just taken on. In addition to 95ha of DK Expectation overall we are trying out 15ha of DK Exposé and running some large-scale strip trials to compare a number of the latest DK varieties.”

Despite obvious variability concerns Mark Stubbs is sticking with V367OL as his Wold crop too. Its £30/t HOLL premium before bonuses has been icing on the crop marketing cake this season, and premiums of up to £50/t are an obvious attraction for 2023.

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.