Ben Blacker: OSR is a dream one year, a nightmare the next
Ben Blacker © Ben Blacker Last year reminded us why we grow oilseed rape. Autumn establishment was a dream, flea beetle pressure was low and the yield delivered a healthy gross margin. Fast forward 12 months, and the picture couldn’t be more different.
An extremely dry September, coinciding with a later-than-usual flea beetle migration, proved a disastrous combination. The rape emerged well, but without moisture, the young plants couldn’t outgrow the damage.
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One night, I went out with my head torch to watch the beetles in action. It was frightening to witness their speed and ferocity. Within 48 hours, the crop had been wiped out. It’s a shame they don’t target blackgrass!
Perhaps even worse than a failed crop is deciding what to do with a patchy one. Do you persevere and hope the surviving plants compensate, or cut your losses and start again? Either way, it means more time, effort and money, with no guarantee of a return.
In the end, as an experiment, I decided to re-drill one failed field in early October. It has a lot of work to do, but it has emerged well so far. At least it should keep us busy over winter, keeping the pigeons off.
The most frustrating part is that I thought we had done everything right. We hadn’t changed our approach: seed-bed conditions were excellent, we drilled around the same time (mid-September) and we applied a healthy rate of digestate. Yet the outcomes were completely different.
I spent a lot of time questioning whether I could have done anything differently. But I’ve stopped blaming myself and realised that sometimes you can do everything right and still get the wrong result.
I’m not ready to write off oilseed rape just yet. One difficult autumn doesn’t erase its potential, but neither should a good year blind us to the risks.
For now, we’ll see how the re-drilled field develops. Farming never lets you dwell on mistakes for long. There’s always another job to do and another season around the corner.
