Osr Desiccation timing

[# Robin]

Got some late drilled clearfield rape which I’m dying to desiccate due to all the crap but plants don’t seem to have matured evenly this year. Some plants seem mostly ripe but some are completely green.

What causes the yield loss from spraying too early? Do the green pods still turn black but lose oil? What would others do? cheers

 

[Zippy768]

Got some late drilled clearfield rape which I’m dying to desiccate due to all the crap but plants don’t seem to have matured evenly this year. Some plants seem mostly ripe but some are completely green.

What causes the yield loss from spraying too early? Do the green pods still turn black but lose oil? What would others do? cheers

Green seeds turn red.
Crushers don't like red.
It's the seeds to look at, not the pod

 

[# Robin]

Green seeds turn red.
Crushers don't like red.
It's the seeds to look at, not the pod

Cheers

 

[alomy75]

Got some late drilled clearfield rape which I’m dying to desiccate due to all the crap but plants don’t seem to have matured evenly this year. Some plants seem mostly ripe but some are completely green.

What causes the yield loss from spraying too early? Do the green pods still turn black but lose oil? What would others do? cheers

I’d spray that if it was mine. We used to swath and that would have had the swather by now if that photo is representative

 

[DefenderDave]

Was in the same predicament, ahdb says pick 20 pods and if 15 of said pods have 2/3 of the rape seeds turning brown, it is ready to spray.

With that said I burnt off some that wasn’t quite at that stage earlier as the crops don’t seem to be ripening evenly this year

 

[Flat 10]

I seem to remember the glyphosate cans say similar too.

 

[deleted user 837354]

I should think a lot of crops are either patchy, weedy or quite uneven this year given the season we have had. Not a year to rely on combining it direct after allowing it to sort itself naturally.

 

[Luke Cropwalker]

Remember that OSR ripens from the bottom of the plant upwards. I like to see some of the seeds turning brown in the top pods on the main raceme before spraying off, a little late is better than too early.

 

[Lincsman]

Spaying green seeds reduces yield, oil content and potential saleability with red seed admit.

 

[DrWazzock]

A very strange year. Mine is a good three weeks away yet. It’s all over the place due to disease, larvae, regrowth. It’ll be a case of looking at the overall field cover and making a considered judgement rather than counting pods and seeds. Always was to some extent.

 

[DrWazzock]

Spray when the fieid is the colour of hare’s back when viewed from an upstairs window.

 

[DrWazzock]

I’ve never found the AHDB pod sampling technique very useful to be honest. There are always unknown amounts of green area and in a field and unknown amounts of browner riper area and the pod and seed sample depends where you wander here. We’ve very variable soil types which adds that extra high level requirement to look across the whole fieid.

 

[# Robin]

Thanks guys, appreciate that. Green plants seem very slow to turn, didn’t realise they’d produce red seeds if desiccated. I've walked away for a week, it’s had podstick! Cheers

 

[Lincsman]

Thanks guys, appreciate that. Green plants seem very slow to turn, didn’t realise they’d produce red seeds if desiccated. I've walked away for a week, it’s had podstick! Cheers

They are worse for red seeds if swathed too early, i never sprayed anything on it for the last 25 years i was growing it, always a bit damp but kept the full yield of grain and oil.

 

[deleted user 837354]

Combining it without prior desiccation, welcome to the inner workings of the device lovingly known as the 'slip clutch'.

 

[DrWazzock]

I’ve combined rape in September for a neighbour. He’d left it to die naturally partly because his combine gearbox had broken down and he couldn’t get it fixed. It’s surprising how the pods had stayed closed but he hadn’t had a hailstorm.

 

[DrWazzock]

Always seems to combine best about 11% here. Less shatter losses on the front end and split seed blowing over the back. Rarely possible though. One minute it seems to be 12%, next thing it’s 6.