Why spring oilseed rape could be worth a look

Advantages

Since 2015, when 13,400 hectares of spring OSR was grown, the crop has been in decline. Defra predicted 4,300ha would be grown for harvest 2020, however, looking at harvest year 2014, which saw wet conditions in the previous autumn/winter, spring oilseed rape accounted for 92,400ha, said Mr Mecrow.

“This reflects the year we are in at the moment. We could see 35,000-40,000ha of spring oilseed rape planted this year in the UK.”

Advantages of spring oilseed rape include maintaining a break crop in the rotation, the opportunity to create a stale seedbed for control of black-grass and an earlier harvest than some other spring crops, said Mr Mecrow.

“It is also easy to move [to market]. You can move it quickly or store it alongside or on top of winter OSR without any problems.”

Oversupply

Provisional AHDB Early Bird Survey results indicate spring barley cropping will go up by 200,000ha, oats by 28,000ha, OSR will be down 23,000ha and pulses up by 43,000ha, said Mr Mecrow.

“There is potential for oversupply in the market on some of these crops which could affect prices, particularly if quality is below standard.

“Looking at gross margins, spring OSR compares well against other spring crops,” said Mr Mecrow.

Gross margin estimates for spring crops 2020

Source: United Oilseeds with costs data from Nix 2019

Significant progress has been made in breeding higher yielding spring oilseed rape varieties with top varieties Performer and Lagonda having gross outputs, yield adjusted for output, of 113% and 112% of controls, respectively, on the Spring Oilseed Rape Descriptive List 2020.