North Yorkshire farmer Paul Rogers is reporting one of his best ever oilseed rape harvests, with his 43ha crop averaging well over 5 tonnes/ha.
He points to the continuing progress in plant breeding as a major reason why he’s kept rape in his rotation for the last twenty five years, and sticks to a management philosophy that ensures he makes the most of the genetics.
“You have to be led by the conditions, and moisture in the seedbed with relatively early drilling are amongst the most critical factors,” he says. “We grow a hybrid variety, because it has the vigour to get up and out of the ground and establish quickly, which we find is the best way to combat flea beetle.”
Mr Rogers has grown Limagrain’s hybrid LG Adapt for the last two years. High ranking for yield and oil content, and suitable for all areas, the variety also has an outstanding trait package, including pod shatter resistance, strong stem health, and resistance to Phoma and Turnip Yellows Virus.
The 2026 crop followed spring barley, with the majority going in on 3rd August and a 9ha block drilled three weeks later.
Paul has praised Limagrain’s plant breeding programme.
“We have an air seeder mounted on our Vaderstad TopDown, with a roller directly behind that helps to keep the moisture in the seedbed,” he explains. “It’s not as precise as some sowing methods, but has proven to be effective over the years.”
On land benefitting from plenty of farmyard manure in the past, the fertiliser inputs are relatively modest, with seedbed nitrogen at 75 units/ha and a 0:20:30 PK compound applied at around 115kg/ha.
“The main crop grew away really quickly, and we were concerned it might have become too big, but it sorted itself out,” recalls Mr Rogers. “The later drilled field was affected by flea beetle, so we had to spray it three times, but it came through alright.”
“By the spring we could see that the crop had real potential. We sprayed against Sclerotinia, and top-dressed with fertiliser in early March.”
Harvested on 26th July, the earlier drilled proportion yielded 5.7t/ha, around half a tonne per hectare more than the later drilled field, with moisture content for most of the crop being under 9%.
“We’re very happy overall,” concludes Mr Rogers. “We stick to a tried and trusted method, and have great faith in the plant breeding programme, which continues to offer resilient varieties.”
About The Author
Florentina Petrescu
OSR Product Manager
