Way ahead on earliness to harvest, once again
The latest pre-harvest sampling results from The Arable Group (TAG) is clearly indicating that the winter oilseed rape variety Alienor, which is the earliest line to maturity, is once again maturing much earlier than Castille and so will be the first to harvest and in the barn.
Neil Groom, Technical Manager for Grainseed, has received the latest harvest results from Morley in Norfolk, and Aby Lincolnshire and he reports that Es Alienor is coming off 4% drier than Castile. "Although the seed moistures are at the 30% level and still 2 weeks from harvest we observed a 4% difference in moisture throughout the season last year and Alienor was at 9% grain moisture on the 23rd July whilst Castille was still at 14% moisture. In practise this lead to Alienor being 7-10 days earlier than Castille in these sampling trials. It looks to be showing exactly the same pattern this year."
He points out that this confirmed earliness to maturity means that crops of Alienor are ready to harvest and in the barn before the combine evens starts on other rape varieties. "Such a variety as Alienor helps spread the workload at harvest – an advantage to growers with a large acreage to harvest and to drill up. When growers are selecting varieties of rape to drill they should take account of the maturity rating. Expert has always been considered a late maturing variety, but some new varieties are later still and the harvesting of these crops could easily clash with cutting wheat".
"We are advising growers to think about planting 20% of their winter rape area down to early varieties like Alienor and so spread the risk next harvest. You don’t want to be caught out with later maturing varieties, as they put standard crop rotations out of kilter," says Neil.
John Hardy of Grainseed also points out that Alienor has shown significant crop vigour this year, both in the autumn and into the spring, way ahead of hybrids. "Not only this, it is a low biomass variety with an average height of just 147 cms, close to that of Castille at 144 cms. Farmers want a vigorous crop that is easy and cheaper to manage. Low biomass varieties are less likely to lodge, have less bulk to go through the combine and are quicker and easier to harvest."
"In addition Alienor has the best combined disease resistance ratings of any conventional variety, with a 7.4 for Phoma and a 6.2 for Light leaf Spot, making this variety suitable to grow in all parts of the UK. The basis of Alienor’s resistance is multigenic and so will last," reports John.
John Hardy concludes that Alienor has a unique combination of yield and agronomic characteristics that make it well worth considering for planting this year anywhere in the UK for early harvesting. "Its overall package allows much easier and less costly inputs without compromising on yield, plus great ease of management."
For further comment and information on the oilseed rape varieties Es Alienor or other Grainseed varieties such as Es Astrid, please contact John Hardy, Director of Grainseed Ltd on 01379 871073 or 07836 582436.
