Rape N conundrum

[Flintstone]

In the areas of the rape where the CSFB hit it hard, and the plants are small and pathetic, is the last dose of N worth bothering with? Those areas will be lucky to yield much, but I can’t work out whether those plants will respond to N, or if it’s just a waste.

 

[Badshot]

If they haven't responded yet I can't see them doing so.
Most rape round here is approaching flowering.

 

[Flintstone]

Thanks. Pretty much what I thought.

 

[Brisel]

I will reduce the last dose of N on my CSFB twisted up plants. No green/yellow bud fungicide nor sclerotinia fungicide either. The next spray pass will be glyphosate pre harvest to clean the weeds up. I'm capping the total spring N at 160 kg instead of the usual 220 kg (subject to canopy size). It has had a chance to grow but even plants that looked good in Feb now look sorry. No heart in the plant & larvae in the growing points & stem base.

Nothing written off yet & the odd bare patch isn't worth sowing with anything else. 1.5-2 t/ha is better than messing around with odd patches of peas or linseed. Astrokerb in December means there's little I can legally plant instead anyway.

 

[principal skinner]

Pretty much as above apart from taken mine up to 180kgs N. Next pass will be pre harvest glyphosate. OSR’s future here uncertain

 

[B'o'B]

I will reduce the last dose of N on my CSFB twisted up plants. No green/yellow bud fungicide nor sclerotinia fungicide either. The next spray pass will be glyphosate pre harvest to clean the weeds up. I'm capping the total spring N at 160 kg instead of the usual 220 kg (subject to canopy size). It has had a chance to grow but even plants that looked good in Feb now look sorry. No heart in the plant & larvae in the growing points & stem base.

Nothing written off yet & the odd bare patch isn't worth sowing with anything else. 1.5-2 t/ha is better than messing around with odd patches of peas or linseed. Astrokerb in December means there's little I can legally plant instead anyway.

That about sums us up too. So far it’s had 30kg autumn N and 90% has had 120kg spring N, I might top up the very best areas but that would only be about 25% of the area.

 

[Flintstone]

I ended up giving my half decent stuff 195kgs, and my ropey stuff total will be 130 kgs.

It’ll be strange not rushing around drilling rape this summer. I’m looking forward to it.

 

[Shutesy]

I ended up giving my half decent stuff 195kgs, and my ropey stuff total will be 130 kgs.

It’ll be strange not rushing around drilling rape this summer. I’m looking forward to it.

What will you be drilling instead? More Wheat or S Barley or something else??

 

[Flintstone]

My whole cropping will change.

Until now I’ve been 1st wheat, spring barley, osr, beans, and 5% fallow (greening). Rape has been gradually declining in performance and profitability since the removal of neonics, and I can’t bring myself to plaster the countryside in insecticide next autumn tonthen see a crop go to harvest that doesn’t make me money.

With the above, and the fact that I’ve decided to stop buying crop protection programmes designed for 11 tonnes crops when I realistically only average 9.5 tonnes, there’s been a big change in my pushing for margins rather than yield too. Feeding a donkey feed designed for a racehorse will mean it’ll still be a donkey, but just a very well fed one.

Moving to Claydon has increased yields of winter cereals by just under 10%, but I’ve decided that my limiting factor is light land that has an upper yield ceiling and it’s foolish to throw money at it in a can when it can’t do any more.

So...

First winter wheats as usual. Feed varieties only, but aiming for a clear and ‘safe’ £150 per acre profit based on more realistic input choices for limitations of light land.
Spring barley as usual (I find I can get mating easily enough).
Winter oats on cleanest BG fields.
Winter beans using Claydon bean kit that worked brilliantly last year.
And then in any fields destined for wheat that are historically bad for BG, I’ll use Belepi as a low input ‘delayed option’ which also covers me for a wet autumn too.

 

[tw15]

I will reduce the last dose of N on my CSFB twisted up plants. No green/yellow bud fungicide nor sclerotinia fungicide either. The next spray pass will be glyphosate pre harvest to clean the weeds up. I'm capping the total spring N at 160 kg instead of the usual 220 kg (subject to canopy size). It has had a chance to grow but even plants that looked good in Feb now look sorry. No heart in the plant & larvae in the growing points & stem base.

Nothing written off yet & the odd bare patch isn't worth sowing with anything else. 1.5-2 t/ha is better than messing around with odd patches of peas or linseed. Astrokerb in December means there's little I can legally plant instead anyway.

See one of you tenant farmers has ripped up some that just didn't take off at all .
I had a look at some stunted plants over the hedge from us and the very start of the stem base is like wood and then about 2 inches up it is like scally ring around the outside of it , then nice green stem I couldn't' t see any larvae . Some plants are just flowering the rest only about 8 inches tall .
Starting to think could it be that its not all csfb damage as put a few plants in a jug of water for 5 days and haven't moved at all.
Going back to the stem issue I cant see that any plant is going to do much good as the nutrients and water isn't going to get past the hard white woody part in any useful quantities for the plants to use .

 

[Gong Farmer]

Some want to give up after the first dose. That's fine if you're giving up on the crop but if looking for a recovery you have to feed it. Still wouldn't go anywhere near the normal total dose, mind.

 

[Brisel]

See one of you tenant farmers has ripped up some that just didn't take off at all .
I had a look at some stunted plants over the hedge from us and the very start of the stem base is like wood and then about 2 inches up it is like scally ring around the outside of it , then nice green stem I couldn't' t see any larvae . Some plants are just flowering the rest only about 8 inches tall .
Starting to think could it be that its not all csfb damage as put a few plants in a jug of water for 5 days and haven't moved at all.
Going back to the stem issue I cant see that any plant is going to do much good as the nutrients and water isn't going to get past the hard white woody part in any useful quantities for the plants to use .

I'm not going to speak for that neighbour other than the crop I saw him ripping up really had gone. I saw no question of nursing it through.

 

[tw15]

It looked like it was going back since xmas and just sat there ever since . Not the growers fault just bad luck to get hit hard by csfb .

 

[spikeislander]

How far north has this gone this year . A lot pulled up here in autumn and redrilled and most that looked ok is now looking very poor or been done up .
( Bedfordshire)

 

[Mr Charisma]

I've had a few days away with the girlfriend , driving through Northants Leicestershire , Lincolnshire , and a bit of Nofuk I hardly saw a decent field of rape , in fact I think I can say I only saw one decent field and I saw a awful lot of poor rape ,,,,,, dire times !!!!!!!!

 

[Billboy1]

Ironic isn’t it that banning neonic which is supposedly causing problems for the bee population might in fact result in a lot less pollen producing plants ie osr !

 

[Clive]

Flew back into east mids yesterday and it was mostly cloud free over the uk

The lack of yellow fields is notable

 

[Mdt]

Flew back into east mids yesterday and it was mostly cloud free over the uk

The lack of yellow fields is notable

I was fortunate enough to win a day in a helicopter last week and I said the same, not sure why some fields were left as quite shocking but I can see osr area dwindling if nothing is done soon to help establishment of the crop!

 

[Clive]

I think we have made our own bed on this one, it’s easy to blame neonics but that’s only part of the real story imo

The crop has been grown too much, resulting in lack of diversity in rotations and our completely irresponsible use of insecticides has rendered us defenceless

It should be a warning that we can not continue to farm this way with so little regard to soil health and environment or it will be the first of many crops that some find uneconomical to grow ..........

Time for some farmers to wake up and see what’s ACTUALY going on before it’s too late

 

[Flat 10]

I think we have made our own bed on this one, it’s easy to blame neonics but that’s only part of the real story imo

The crop has been grown too much, resulting in lack of diversity in rotations and our completely irresponsible use of insecticides has rendered us defenceless

It should be a warning that we can not continue to farm this way with so little regard to soil health and environment or it will be the first of many crops that some find uneconomical to grow ..........

Time for some farmers to wake up and see what’s ACTUALY going on before it’s too late

I’m really annoyed about this and it’s not that simple. I have 1 field of Osr (the only one) this year which has just about been ruined by csfb.
No Osr grown on farm for 5 years. This field has only had 1 insecticide in the preceding 4 crops and 1 insecticide this autumn to control biblical plague of adult csfb. I hardly think my chemical use has been excessive and my rotation is diverse.