Arable crops

Don't let your oilseed go hungry

22 September 2021

Establishment is so important when growing oilseed, getting the crop up and away to combat pest pressure is the aim of the game.

At the time of writing there has not been any significant rain for weeks in some areas; which is a worry for newly emerging oilseed crops as moisture is key to getting good establishment. With rain on the forecast, hopefully, just in time, we should see a flush of growth from the nutrients released from soils. If fertiliser wasn’t applied at drilling you’ve got until the end of October to apply up to 30kgN/ha if you’re in an NVZ, to give the crop the best chance of establishing successfully.

Once oilseed has reached the 4 true leaf stage (GS14) it is safe to apply some of the key micronutrients to ensure growth isn’t hindered at all going into the winter. Oilseed can put a lot of biomass on over a short space of time if conditions are right, which means there is the potential for crops to deplete micronutrients levels in the soil.

A simple way to apply all of the key micronutrients required, in the autumn, on oilseed is to use a multi-nutrient, crop-specific product such as YaraVita Brassitrel Pro. This mix contains magnesium, manganese, calcium, boron and molybdenum – vital micronutrients for this crop, particularly if we want to aid establishment.

Yara conducts independent trials each year and over the past 6 years the data has shown an average yield response of 0.3t/ha from an application of Brassitrel Pro both in the autumn and followed up in the spring. This means it is well worth applying as the return on investment is several times the cost of the product.

An added benefit from making sure the crop has all the nutrients it requires in the autumn is that a healthier plant is better able to cope with disease pressure and some of these nutrients have been shown to decrease the incidence of disease significantly. Think of it as a healthy animal not being as susceptible to illnesses as one that doesn’t have a sufficient nutritional diet, it is the same for plants.

Read more about micronutrients for oilseed rape