11 May, 2026

Increased OSR Yields with Foliar N

By: Natalie Wood

This year many oilseed crops look fantastic, especially through flowering, with nice, even canopies. With the prolonged flowering period there is still time to apply a late foliar nitrogen to OSR to try and push the yield.

For oilseed rape it is key to keep the crop greener for longer and ensure the Green Area Duration (GAD) is maximised. Once the crop is heading towards the end of flowering, it is important to help maintain the GAD by applying nitrogen. There are a few options when it comes to foliar applications of nitrogen at this timing, giving some flexibility to spray programmes. 20-40kgN/ha of Yara Nufol 20 should be applied at late flowering/petal fall to ensure the nitrogen won’t be applied to petals that will soon be lost, taking the nutrient with them.

Another option would be YaraVita Safe-N which, whilst quickly absorbed into the leaf, 25% of the nitrogen is present as a slow-release form to give a long-lasting feeding effect contain nitrogen, keeping the crop greener for longer.

Trial results show that you can expect to see an increase of 0.33-0.5 t/ha. At current prices of £440/t, this is worth approximately £145-220/ha, still a good return on investment.