With the price of oilseed rape surging to a multi-year high in recent weeks and prospects looking strong for next year, spring-sown oilseed rape could deliver real benefits for growers in 2021, says ADM Agriculture’s Head of Seed James Barlow.
New generation varieties able to deliver their full potential in the shorter growing window combined with greater understanding of the crop’s management, means spring sown oilseed now provides the best opportunity for growers in its history, aided mainly by the hybridisation of the crop in the past decade, he says
This year we commissioned a three site yield trial in the UK for screening and demo purposes. The trials were conducted alongside official trials in Wiltshire, Norfolk and Cheshire. Harvest started in mid September and was finished by mid October in Cheshire, where we saw the highest yield with an average DM yield of nearly 17t per ha and a top yield of over 19t/ha. The average at the other 2 sites was somewhat lower at nearly 15 t per ha with the top yield over 16t.
It couldn’t have started at a better time. With the challenges of Covid – 19 the ability to start my placement provided by DSV allowed me an opportunity in the new ‘normal’ we find ourselves in. I was enthusiastically looking forward to moving down to start my new role. My background is a family beef & sheep farm. So I was excited to throw myself into the new world of ‘crops’. In the short time I have been at DSV I have already experienced a multitude of skills and areas within the business.
The latest maize varieties are pushing energy yields to levels not seen in the UK before with, says DSV’s Michael Farr.
The company’s new flint/dent variety Petroschka, for example, can achieve 235,000 MJ/ha with simple management making it one of the most reliable and productive options for AD plants, he points out.
DSV’s new group 4 hard wheat variety Theodore, which was added to the AHDB Recommended List for the first time last year, has again underlined its class-leading disease resistance in 2020 harvest results, says the company’s Sarah Hawthorne.
