The breeder of Pi Pinnacle, the highest yielding conventional variety in the East and West region of the Recommended List, is adamant that getting the crop established well is key to its cropping success. Mike Pickford has been breeding conventional varieties for 40 years in the Cotswolds on brashy soils and knows that peak performance is driven by even seedling emergence in the field.
“I select varieties that produce big seeds and this aids seedling growth as there is more energy in each seed compared to varieties with a smaller thousand seed weight. Pinnacle has a TGW of 6.5 to 7. In the last 2 harvests, the heat has caused crops to dry down very rapidly. If you are farm saving your seed,screen it hard to keep the biggest seeds,” Mike says
Establishing your rape crop this year is going to be challenging, following the prolonged summer drought, reckons Neil Groom, general manager of Grainseed that markets Pinnacle. “It’s going to take a lot of rain to wet the soil profile up again, so be careful on how much you cultivate the soil and always follow with some heavy rolls to consolidate the seedbed. You are aiming to produce a fine tilth seedbed suitable for drilling. Soil moisture is key to good establishment.”
“Ideally OSR should be established before the middle of August, so that the seedlings have two true leaves before cabbage stem flea beetle adults migrate into new crops at the end of August. If we haven’t had sufficient rain by then, it is better to keep the seeds in the bag until mid-September when adult migration is reducing again,” Neil advises.
The UK needs more rape to be grown to reduce imports. The area of rape has been reducing year on year and the UK has been importing a lot of seed from abroad for crushing. Growers should be either increasing the area of rape grown or returning to growing it. The area harvesting now is still way below the UK requirements for self sufficiency
“Growing rape for harvest 2027 shouldn’t be too difficult a decision,” says Neil “OSR remains the best paying break crop on farm. Initial yields both on farm and in trials this year have been 4.5 t/ha or more, with a current price of more than £450/tonne and a forward spring price of £470+ it looks that OSR could be the best paying crop on the farm, just as it was last year.”
Achieving a high farm yield is dependent on producing an even good establishment over the whole field. “In the past we have lost too many headlands and weaker areas that have pulled the farm average yields down. Pigeons have been less of a winter problem over the last 2 seasons due to a thinning out of the population with bird flu. The big migrating flocks from Scandinavia are less prevalent, but it is still important to keep any grazing to a minimum,”says Neil.
The AHDB Reboot Oilseed rape campaign recognises the desire to have more UK grown oilseeds and encourages growers to use all the tools available to aid establishment. The use of companion crops, especially buckwheat, is becoming more widespread, adds Neil. “Buckwheat is amazingly fast to grow; it can be flowering within 4 weeks and disguises the OSR seedlings underneath its canopy. Sow at 10kg/ha, ideally in a separate hopper on the drill if you have it but mix with your OSR seed in small regular fills of the drill, if not to prevent separation in the drill.”
Early crop nutrition applied with the drill or as organic manures or digestate helps the crop establish well. “It’s a combination of both the plant available nutrients and the smell that helps the crop get up and away from CSFB adult attack. If you can get hold of organic manure, I would always apply it,” advisesNeil.
Returning to Pinnacle, it was the most widely grown variety in the AHDB June crop census, agronomists know how to get the best from their Pinnacle crops and farmers like its cost effectiveness and performance on farm.
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