The low biomass oilseed rape variety Astrid is looking extremely well, ahead of the neighbouring crop of the hybrid Excalibur, and indicating that it will produce another high yielding crop for farm manager John Benson of Stuart Arden, Tile Farm, Guilden Sutton, near Chester.
Farming 350 hectares of mainly sandy loam clay, John has produced an average rape yield of 4.5 t/ha in the last few years and manages the crops with absolute attention to detail to achieve this excellent yield. "The rape on the farm is usually grown in a 1 in 5 rotation and this year we have grown Astrid, a low biomass conventional variety and Excalibur, a hybrid that is usually drilled a bit later. As for all oilseed rape, seed bed preparation is very important and we managed to create a good seedbed this autumn. No re-drilling was necessary. Our seedbed technique is to cut and bale the straw, Shakerate the soil, roll it and then drill with a combine drill, to a depth of just 2 inches or so. The seed rates we use are 5 kg/hectare for Astrid and 3.5 kg/hectare for Excalibur, which gives a plant stand of 50-60 plants/metre². We also have used compost to improve the soil structure."
According to John Benson, the Astrid looked well all year, growing away and filling out in the autumn and so creating little opportunity for pigeon damage. It is just coming into bud at the beginning of April, he says.
"Astrid ticks all the boxes as far as I am concerned. This is the second year I have grown it and I was impressed with it last year."
Elfred Holloway of Agrovista advises John and has been looking after his rape and other crops for a number of years. "Although Astrid has excellent disease resistance, we applied some Capitan fungicide in the autumn, but no further Phoma sprays have been necessary. We are now considering what approach to take against Sclerotinia, which is imminent."