The area sown to oilseed rape has been largely static in recent years and seems broadly similar this year. Every year seems to bring different challenges which make timely planting difficult and these are mainly weather-related. This autumn, much of the planting was delayed, but relatively mild weather has helped these crops to catch up on canopy production and most are still open enough to enable any further weed control.

Good weed control is important with oilseed rape. Some growers rely on metazachlor-based residuals, either alone or in mixtures such as Katamaran Turbo. Others have stayed with propyzamide products, which were traditionally known as Kerb treatments. While that active is limited in its broad-leaf weed spectrum, it was always good on grass weeds and volunteer cereals.

One of the peculiarities of Kerb is that it is best applied after the crop itself has been hardened off by a period of cold or frost to build protective wax on the leaves. But there still needs to be a low level of growth for activity. Kerb gradually evolved and its modern formulation is Astrokerb, which includes the addition of aminopyralid with propyzamide.

Surviving weeds can also now be targeted by other specific herbicides as a follow-up spray. While options were very limited in the past, there are now a number of good products available (see Table 1). The major options for broad-leaved weed control are Belkar, Centium, Galera and Salsa. Most have activity against cleavers, but they differ in terms of the range and size of weeds controlled. Salsa is used to target brassica weeds. There are also many different graminicides that can be used to control surviving grassweeds. Extra care is needed in product choice if you have resistance in specific weeds.

Disease considerations

Control of foliar and stem diseases mainly targets phoma and light leaf spot, as club root is a rotational disease. As foliar disease infection generally begins in the autumn, treatment must begin then also.

Fungicide and growth regulation tend to go hand in hand in winter rape because the same product does both. Rate has a major influence on the level of growth regulation produced. Autumn infection with phoma and light leafspot should be controlled where infection thresholds are reached. This may not always occur, but when it is needed it can be very beneficial.

Many years ago, I carried an article on disease control in oilseed rape in one of our Crop Protection magazines. This addressed the significance of different diseases, where infection comes from and the benefit of fungicide use.

Traditionally, our use advice has followed British research where the intensity of oilseed rape production was much higher than here. The article challenged the regular prophylactic use of fungicide.

The premise was that the ability of these diseases to spread is limited. Put simply, if the nearest current crop or rape stubble is 500m or more away, then your risk of infection is low. And if you get no infection, there may be very limited benefit from spring fungicides. I have followed this advice at times and confined total fungicide use to a half-rate of a basic triazole in the autumn, with no apparent impact on yield.

Sclerotinia is a different kettle of fish. Where this soil-borne disease is known to be in a field, there is little choice but to spray. However, if a field has no history of the presence of sclerotinia and if it has not grown other crops that are affected by this disease, then there is little benefit in spraying to prevent a disease that should not be there. This is obviously dependent on having an accurate field history in terms of rotation and field experience.

Oilseed rape prices are currently strong for next November. \ Donal O'Leary

Markets and forward selling

The outlook for oilseed rape prices has been relatively good for the past few years. In general, prices have been tending upwards for the past four months or so, helped by the strength of vegetable oil markets and now protein meal. But prices have been relatively strong for the past few years since the ban on neonicotinoids limited EU production. Yields have also been limited due to crop damage caused by the cabbage stem flea beetle.

While prices in 2020 were helped by lower production, the market still sees the EU neonicotinoid ban as being a factor in the future.

Figure 1 shows a strong closing price last week of €393.50/t for November 2021 for dry oilseed rape. While this is lower than current values, it is a strong price for a year ahead and might be considered if you can get a merchant to offer you the equivalent value. The MATIF February ‘21 price closed at €407.75 on 16 November. So the price prospects look reasonable for those with oilseed rape already in the ground, but it could fall as well as rise.

In general, our native prices for dry rape follow the MATIF price level, give or take. However, most farmers do not have direct access to MATIF and can only avail of it through forward prices with merchants. MATIF is not a physical market and most of our oilseed rape is either used in feed manufacture or is exported for crushing. This can leave physical prices here lower than MATIF at times if cheaper alternatives are available in the feed market.

There is little doubt but that rape prices are currently being influenced by the hike in soya bean prices. As oilseed rape cake (a mid-protein product left over after the oil is squeezed out) is used as a protein feed, its composite price is influenced by strong markets for both soya bean meal and vegetable oil.

Protein prices

Protein prices have risen in recent weeks (Figure 1) because of production fears for 2021 due to dryness affecting planting in some major exporting countries.

Very strong international demand is also a factor, as countries attempt to build stocks ahead of further possible market disruption due to COVID-19.

The soya bean meal price hike earlier this year during mid-March and through April (Figure 1) was due to production fears at planting time in the northern hemisphere, plus a number of other logistical issues at the time. But that price hike was not sustained because there were no anticipated supply issues at the time.

The balance of global supply and demand for soya remains uncertain. The very high import demand from China was unforeseen and may now be set to continue following the US election result. It seems likely that this demand is being driven by the expanding pig herd following the high level of pig slaughter due to African swine fever.

It also seems likely that the rebuilding of China’s pig herd is being done on large high-capacity specialised farm units which use high hygiene standards. This is very different to the historic structure where many farmers had a small number of pigs fed mainly on household slops.

The altered structure will add to the overall requirement for feed.