Striving for consistency in Oilseed Rape production

Oilseed rape is an important crop in arable rotations, with potential to produce the best gross margin of any break crop. However, in spite of developments in breeding, agronomy and nutrition, many growers find it hard to achieve consistent yields across seasons.

Agrovista is continuing their oilseed rape trials at seven locations around the country to further look at aspects of establishment and agronomy which will help growers improve OSR yields.

Previous work from Agrovista has shown the potential for more consistency and higher yields when precision sown - an establishment method difficult in practical farming situations.

In this year’s Growcrop Gold trials Agrovista are emulating the precision sowing method (less inter-plant competition) with practical equipment by manipulating row width and plant population.

In addition, at three sites, they have different herbicides overlaid across each sowing method to see the different plant population’s impact on weed numbers, species and yield.

Two sites are looking at nitrogen application and the opportunity to band apply nitrogen compared with overall applications. This method could allow growers to use more nitrogen in the spring without exceeding Nmax, which may be useful in some situations.

There will be meetings held at the various sites during June and July where industry experts will talk about different aspects of growing oilseed rape to achieve more consistent results.