U.K. Rapeseed Output Seen Falling to 7-Year Low on Farmer Costs

llamedos

New Member
The U.K. may produce the smallest rapeseed crop in seven years in 2016 as farmers cut planting amid high costs, according to United Oilseeds.

The harvest may fall to 2 million metric tons, down 17 percent from this season, Chris Baldwin, a managing director at the Devizes, England-based cooperative, said in a speech Thursday in Newbury. That would be the smallest crop since 2009, government data show.

Bumper harvests of grains and oilseeds worldwide have pressured agriculture prices this year, with rapeseed futures declining in July and August, a time when farmers were making decisions about what to plant. European Union regulations banning the class of pesticides called neonicotinoids also pose potential risks for yields, spurring farmers to reduce planting, according to the cooperative.


"Growers are being turned off because it’s an expensive crop to grow," Owen Cligg, trading manager at the company, which markets about 20 percent of the U.K.’s rapeseed crop, said in an interview. “And there’s a perception, because they haven’t got the neonicotinoids, that it’s a risky crop.”

Looks Tight
The area sown with rapeseed in the U.K. will probably drop about 15 percent from the prior year to 536,000 hectares (1.3 million acres), Cligg said. That’s less than the Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board’s estimate of 565,000 hectares in Great Britain. The U.K. is the EU’s fourth-largest rapeseed grower, after France, Germany and Poland, according to Brussels-based lobby Coceral.

Rapeseed futures in Paris have rebounded in recent months, in part because European supplies are tightening even as global supplies of competing oilseeds including soybeans remain ample. Both crops are used to make cooking oil, animal feed and biofuels.

Rapeseed production in the EU is estimated to fall 13 percent in the current 2015-16 season, according to the European Commission, the bloc’s administrative arm. The EU accounts for about a third of global production. While the demand-and-supply picture "looks tight," price gains are limited due to soybean production, grain marketer Openfield said in a Nov. 20 report.
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
Good. Price levels at import parity are worth at least a tenner more than at export parity. That should ensure that storing beyond harvest is worth it for the extra carry in price. With crude oil prices at levels they are, I can't see any massive price rises looming. The strong £ doesn't help either.

I'm growing less because based on 5 year average yield I can't get costs of production below £300/t. Charlock, poppy & hedge mustard are rife here so herbicide costs are massive. Don't even get me started on slugs or pigeons...!

Down to 1 year in 6 in my rotation from next summer from 1 in 4 now & 1 in 3 over the past 15 years. One pass drilling & slugs just don't go hand in hand very well.
 
my aim is 1 year in 4 here but if I grew linseed could go to 1 in 6 or more
the main advantage of rape is early harvest
fortunately we have low csfb round here not sure on the reason could be that the blocks of rape can be large often 3 or 4 neighbours have a couple of thousand acres next to each other then the following year the area is no rape with rape then in a big block a few miles away

I have more rape in 2016 as I have grown a lot of beans in the last 4 years
 

franklin

New Member
We have less this year, but will have more last year.

Think I would rather have more poor paying OSR than poor paying beans if only for the harvest spread and getting the land worked.
 

Jim Bullock

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
No rape = No slugs (and what are pigeons.?).. We haven't grown any OSR for two years now simply because it just does not stand up financially and it puts a high workload onto the farm at the end of August. It will come back into our rotation but I think we need at least 6/7 years between crops as close cropping has lead to reduced yields and extra expense..
 
5 years now since we last grew it and we even have some virgin osr land but still wouldn't grow it unless it was a guaranteed £400/t + bonuses.
 

Louis Mc

Member
Location
Meath, Ireland
I think with the limited choices of break crops you can't just completely turn your back on it..... Obviously growing it 1 in 2/3/4/5 might be a bit crazy but Im pretty there's a place for it in a well balanced rotation. Longer rotations will likely give yield increases across all of the break crops
 

Gong Farmer

Member
BASIS
Location
S E Glos
Agree, I'd like to think the area has dropped because growers realise the need for longer rotations, rather than simply due to growing costs, but I guess the latter is driving the former
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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