Farmers are busy cutting winter oilseed rape at present and, in general, yields are looking good.

At the recent Goldcrop variety trials open day, John Dunne of Goldcrop commented on the huge progress which has been made in winter oilseed rape yields in recent years.

He described how the control yield in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s recommended list trials was 4.5t/ha in 2017.

On the recently published winter oilseed rape recommended list from the Department for 2023, the control yield was 5.4t/ha.

Improvement

Dunne explained that the improvement in yield came from breeders focusing on improving “components of yield such as seed weight, seed number per pod, pod number per square metre”.

Improvements have also been made in disease control, canopy management and nutrition.

Pod shatter resistance genetics have had a big impact on crops and grower confidence. Pod shatter can cause yield loss and also sheds seed for volunteers in the next crop.

Turnip yellows virus resistance is also available in some varieties and can prevent yield loss in crops from the virus, which can reach 30%.

Clearfield varieties have also made it easier to grow oilseed rape where weeds such as mustard, runch and Charlock are a problem. Clubroot resistance is also available in some varieties.

There is also an N-flex trait available, which was developed by Limagrain, and this trait can help the plant to use nitrogen more efficiently.

All of these improvements in varieties have made winter oilseed rape an easier crop to grow and takes some of the risk once associated with the crop away.