Is Rape Ready for a Revival (Direct Driller Issue 2 - Article 22)

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Sentry farming director John Barrett and Essex grower Dan Wormell explain the benefits of Clearfield varieties of oilseed rape and how they manage them in the field.

The UK oil seed rape cropping area has fluctuated from a high of 755,000ha before the neonocotinoid ban to a low of 564,000 ha in 2017. This year the crop area has increased 10 per cent to over 600,000 ha - farmers are seeing the value once more. “People have confidence in the crop again and that’s not just farmers,” explains Sarah Hawthorne of European seed breeders DSV. “The wider industry sees a future for the crop and that is encouraging businesses to invest in its development once more. “A lot of growers have realised that it’s very difficult to find a better break crop that fits in with existing management and equipment and certainly not one that makes as much money as oilseed rape.”

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Sarah Hawthorne of DSV

There’s a lot going for OSR at the moment. Advances in genetics in recent years have already made the crop much more reliable, she says, and developments such as ‘triple-layered’ yield protected varieties will make the crop even easier to grow with fewer agronomic inputs in the future. Clearfield technology has become popular very quickly, with 1% of the UK area just three years ago to around 10% in 2017. “The plants are resistant to Imazamoxbased herbicides, so you can control difficult weeds such as charlock, runch and hedge mustard whilst the crop is actually growing. “As charlock inclusion contributes to erucic acid levels, many growers have found they end up with higher quality crops too.”

The downside is that Clearfield varieties deliver lower yields compared to the best performers on the Recommended List but all that is about to change with a new wave of second generation Clearfield varieties, Sarah Hawthorne says. “We’ve learned a lot about drilling date, seedbed preparation and establishment techniques to help us mitigate against the loss of neonicotinoids, and new higher output and lower care Clearfield varieties could really make this pay off. “Our new varieties such as Phoenix CL and Plurax CL combine high levels of early vigour with good disease protection packages and are ideally suited to minimum tillage and direct drilling techniques.”

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John Barrett, farming director of Sentry

John Barrett, farming director of Sentry, thinks these varieties will close the yield gap between Clearfield and conventional oilseed rapes. He has responsibility for Sentry’s Hill House Farm near Bungay in Norfolk with 1400ha of arable production. All his Clearfield acreage is now down to Phoenix CL with Plurax CL and Veritas CL is being trialled. “We’ve stuck with oilseed rape despite the problems many people have faced recently and currently have 282ha in the ground as part of a rotation that includes 640ha of winter wheat, 92ha of peas, 127ha of sugar beet, 107ha of winter barley, 69ha of spring barley and 110ha of winter beans. “We’ve deliberately kept the rotations wide and that has definitely helped kept flea beetle at bay but choosing the best variety for individual applications is an essential element of getting the most out of the crop.”

A key part of this is choosing the right variety for the time of year, he says. “For example, if we’re aiming to get oilseed rape in after barley, then we can usually drill around 7 – 10 August so we don’t want something that ‘s going to establish too quickly. “In contrast, if we’re going in later after winter wheat, for example, then high vigour is essential so crops get away quickly and cleanly without being attacked by pests.” John Barrett says that when there is a problem with broad-leaved or difficult to control weeds the Clearfield crop will outshine the others. “We do have problems with Charlock in particular and we’ve historically tried controlling it in the early winter but it’s obvious the crop has been knocked back by competition from the weed up to that point. “With Clearfield you can go in mid to late September with either Cleranda or Cleravo and take the weed out before it has chance to grow so you don’t get the yield loss.”

It also means that difficult preemergence herbicides are avoided which can cut into time at a very busy time of the year. John adds “I am sure a pre-emergence application can also hold the crop back which can leave it more susceptible to pest threats, so it’s not something we like doing if we can avoid.” A 6.0m Vaderstad Rapid drill with a Rapid-Lift tool bar direct drills all the oilseed rape crop. Seedbeds are rolled within 24 hours of drilling. Organic manures such as turkey litter and biosolids are used to aid establishment where the opportunity allows.

John is taking part in DSV’s RDT (Rapid Development Trials) to identify varieties for the future and he says Plurax CL looks particularly encouraging. Phoenix CL is the only commercial variety grown this year. “Plurax CL was the stand out variety earlier in the year being by far the earliest to flower and consequently the
first to finish flowering and is looking really good in the field in the run up to Summer. “I’m also aware of the growing threat of verticillium wilt to UK crops and I’m told trials in Europe, where this is a bigger problem, have shown Plurax CL to have exceptional tolerance to this so it’s a variety we’ll be very keen to look at commercially in the future.”

Essex grower goes for Imazamox resistant varieties

With around 600ha in arable production, Dan Wormell from Colchester has 80% of all oilseed rape down to Imazamox resistant varieties this year. “Oilseed rape has always been a key part of our operations, and like many others we probably had too tight a rotation a few years back.” Extending rotations so oilseed rape is grown only once every five years compared to cropping as frequently as one in two previously. “A typical rotation for us is now winter wheat followed by the oilseed rape and then another winter wheat followed by a spring wheat and then either beans or linseed before starting over again.

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Dan Wormell

The 100ha of oilseed rape grown on the farm’s mostly heavy soils is all direct drilled using a Dale Drills Ecodrill following light cultivation using a stubble rake. DAP is applied down the spout to help the crop get off to the best start possible. “Oilseed rape is a front-loaded crop but you really do have to invest in it to get the most out of it, says Dan Wormell “and that is where the Clearfield varieties come in.” They use Clerando in mid September to take out the more difficult weeds and have found it works better than Cleravo on their farm. “We sprayed on 27 September this year - six weeks after sowing - which was probably a little late.

That’s all part of the learning process.” Dan says he is always looking at new things, and Veritas CL is one of these. Its horizontal growth habit particularly intrigued him and he can see this being of real benefit in inhibiting weed growth. “It definitely grew out rather than up and will help to achieve good ground cover in situations where establishment has been poor. “The fact that it has pod shatter resistance is also important to us as is its Rlm7 resistance to phoma and 7 for light leaf spot.” Plurax CL has also impressed in his RDT trials with the highest vigour of all varieties tested and was the first to flower. The variety has been 2 weeks ahead through the season, and having a combination of early and late flowering varieties helps to hedge our risk against poor weather conditions post flowering. It also has good tolerance to Verticillium wilt.

Conclusion

Breeding developments in the valuable oil seed rape crop are of major benefit to farmers and make long term sense when these are in accordance with the direction of pesticide and genetic regulations. Tackling crop protection in the non-neonicide era is challenge itself, let alone weed and fungal attacks. Farming has numerous challenges and the help of seed breeders can only be appreciated by growers.

Read the article on Page 47 of Issue 2 of Direct Driller Magazine here.
 

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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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