Winter Oilseed Rape

Selection considerations

Geography

• The location of the farm is an important factor as different disease pressures will influence certain criteria that the variety will need to display. For example, light leaf spot pressure is far more of a consideration in the North and Scotland. Temperature also plays a part as some colder regions will need a variety with greater winter hardiness.

Soil type

• Different varieties will suit different situations and heavy or light soils can influence factors such as establishment or vigour, so crops need to be chosen accordingly. Soil diseases like clubroot will also be a key factor in selecting the right variety. For example, Crocodile CR, a variety resistant to common strains of clubroot, offers a high yielding option for sites affected by this disease.

Soil conditions

• The aim is to achieve good seed to soil contact to ensure rapid seed germination and good conditions forresidual herbicides to work effectively.

Rotation

• Short OSR rotations can result in higher pressure from soil borne diseases such as stem canker and verticilium wilt. Consideration should be given to rotation length and disease resistance scores when making variety choices. For example, a variety like DK Expansion offers excellent resistance to stem canker, whilst the conventional variety Flamingo has shown strong resistance in verticilium trials.

Timing schedules

• Early vigour and speed of development will influence decisions on drilling date and therefore help to manage the workload at the busiest time of year. Maturity windows can also be chosen to ensure that the optimum OSR harvest doesn’t clash with other crops that might be on farm. Varieties that can be drilled later tend to be hybrids, but Ballad and Flamingo have excellent vigour and could be an option for later drilling.

Agronomy input

• With chemistry restrictions making weed control difficult, different input options might need to be considered, for example in Clearfield, where brassica weeds are problematic. DK Impression CL yields very closely to the top varieties with the added benefit of good broad leaf weed control from the Imazamox herbicide.

End market

• OSR has a more limited market than that of cereals; however, there are still options to consider, such as growing a specialist oil profile like HEAR or HOLL, to attract a premium. This does have some practical considerations, including isolation from other OSR crops, but offers options beyond the one market that double low OSR trades into.

Winter Wheat

Wheat markets and variety choices are extremely important and we encourage growers to review their individual situation. 

The consumption of wheat is changing with the reduced demand from ethanol and likely increase in exports. As surpluses will need to be of suitable quality for the destination, growing varieties that match the market demand locally is of critical importance.

To aid market ability, growers may need to consider a range of bread, biscuit and soft export grades, selecting varieties that combine high yields with human consumption characteristics.

Selection considerations

Drilling dates

The factors affecting drilling dates are varied and certain aspects become more important depending on the geographic region. These factors include:

Soil conditions

• Aim for good seed to soil contact to ensure rapid seed germination and good conditions for residual herbicides to work effectively.

Grass-weed control

• Very much linked to black-grass and ryegrass emergence. In some seasons, for example of low dormancy and moist soils, delaying drilling will allow early glyphosate treatments, but in dry autumns with high dormancy, this approach does not work.

Acreage to drill

• Spreading the workload is important, but there will be compromises for crop emergence, weed and pest control if drilling in non ideal conditions.

Acreage to spray/harvest

• A spread of drilling dates combined with varieties of differing development speeds and maturities will spread the spring/summer workload as they reach key growth stages a few days apart.

Geographical region

• The colder the field aspect and the further north, the earlier crops can safely be drilled with lower risk of running into early pest problems. Early September drilling is much more feasible in the North, while late drillings can be slow to emerge and in cold winters, crops will stop growing sooner, with a potential knock on effect and late harvest. In East Anglia and parts of Lincolnshire, the opportunity to drill throughout winter is possible and harvest date will not be significantly later.

• In Scotland, the harvest date of the previous crop will have an influence, with the opportunity for stale seed beds very narrow compared to southern England.

Disease and pest risk

• Risk of disease in highly susceptible varieties will only increase if drilled early. Mid-September plantings may have considerably higher levels of septoria and yellow rust than those drilled in October.

• Frontier trials illustrate how the more resistant varieties with stand septoria and rust pressure while achieving relatively high yields.

• Under higher septoria pressure, the more susceptible varieties will be more costly to grow and the risk of losing yield increases where sprays are delayed.

• Second wheat should not be drilled early. In high take-all risk situations even Latitude treated seed should be left until the start of October at the earliest.

• For late drilled crops, wheat bulb fly may be an issue so use of an insecticidal treatment like Signal is advised.

Very early drilling

• Ideally, varieties drilled in early September should be slow developing, disease resistant and have good resistance to lodging.

20th September to mid-October (main drilling window)

• Most varieties can be drilled during this period. If a range of varieties is on farm, segregate by speed of early development and straw strength.

Late drilling

• Attributes should include fast early development and good tillering capacity to ensure good ground cover going into winter.

Second wheat

• Most varieties perform much as they would in the first wheat slot. Ideally, varieties should have good resistance to eyespot, but this is not always reflected in final yield.

• Quality wheats are often drilled in this slot, as the reduced yield potential can help maintain grain protein content.

Winter Barley 

Winter barley is an important crop on many farms, providing an early entry for oilseed rape and a home-grown source of grain and straw on livestock farms. Malting varieties should beat least provisionally approved by the Malting Barley Committee (MBC) to ensure marketability, or grown on a named variety contract.

Contracts usually specify certain criteria, including specific weight, nitrogen content, moisture and admixture.

For feed barley, a high yield would be an important requirement but in conjunction with a reasonable specific weight. Six row varieties have improved in this respect over the years with many now having the same specific weight as their two row counterparts.

Selection considerations

Soil Conditions

• Aim for good seed to soil contact to ensure rapid seed germination and provide good conditions for residual herbicides to work effectively.

Geographical region

• The colder the field aspect and the further geographically north, the earlier crops can safely be drilled with lower risk of running into early pest problems. Early September drilling is much more feasible in the north, while late drillings can be slow to emerge. In cold winters, crops will stop growing sooner, with a potential knock on effect and late harvest.

Disease and pest risk

• Risk of disease in highly susceptible varieties will only increase if drilled early. BYDV infection can occur from early September until the temperature drops consistently below 5°C.

Drilling Dates

• Winter barley should not be drilled late if at all possible as establishment will suffer and few tillers will be present. The use of Manganese seed treatment can help to mitigate yield-reducing tiller loss. This is crucial as winter kill is more common in barley than in wheat.

Hybrid Barley

• Seed rates are much reduced for hybrid barley with 200seeds/m2 advised. The speed of development helps to compensate for the lower seed rate, but management of the crop needs to be slightly different to conventional barley. Most important is the nitrogen fertiliser split. Three splits are advised with the first application of 30% at GS25, 50% at or just before GS31 and 20% 2-3 weeks after this. Even when tiller numbers are high, early nitrogen is advised.

Our Quality Standards

We believe that seed quality is an essential building block to success; an opportunity to maximise crop potential and minimise farm management challenges.

Through our partnership with expert seed growers, rigorous in-season inspections and use of the latest seed cleaning and treating technology, we produce seed that doesn’t just meet the industry standards, it exceeds them.

That’s why we created the Frontier Standard, a demonstration of our commitment to providing seed of the highest quality.

You can find more information about our quality standards for cereals and oilseed rape below.

Cereals

Oilseed rape

Cereal Seed Treatment

Single purpose treatments

Beret Gold (25g/l fludioxonil) wheat, oats, triticale and rye

• Wheat: seedling blight and foot rot, common bunt, septoria seedling blight, loose smut

• Barley: covered smut, leaf stripe, seedling blight and foot rot.

Raxil Star (20g/l fluopyram + 100g/l prothioconazole +60g/l tebuconazole) winter barley

• Seedling blight and foot rot, seed borne net blotch, leaf stripe, covered smut and particularly loose smut.

Redigo Pro (150g/l prothioconazole + 20g/l tebuconazole) wheat, barley and winter oats

• Barley: seedling blight and foot rot, loose smut, covered smut, leaf stripe.

Added value single purpose treatments

Vibrance Duo (25g/l sedexane + 25g/l fludioxonil) winter wheat, triticale, rye and spring oats

• Wheat: seed borne snow mould, septoria nodurum, seed bornefusarium, common bunt, loose smut

• Oats: loose smut

• Improves root health and crop establishment to create bigger, greener plants compared to an SPD.

Added value treatments

Latitude (125g/l silthiofam) wheat & winter barley

• Second and third wheat situations

• Winter barley following a cereal

• Earlier drilled crops

• First wheat after fallow or a spring cereal

• Latitude prevents the take-all fungus in the soil from infecting newly developing roots. This allows better establishment and rooting and reduces the level of take-all through to grain fill. By reducing root damage the product maintains root efficiency to absorb water and nutrients well into May/June.

PolySeia* 500R

• High quality unique formulation polymer coating that positively impacts on germination in dry conditions

• Helps reduce dust

• Provides even coverage of other treatments

• Coloured to allow visibility in field to check drilling accuracy.

Mn-Tain – (597gm/t Mn in nitrate form) high Mn concentration for use with all fungicidal seed treatments

• Provides a high dose of readily available manganese nitrate to the developing plant, improving emergence and early plant growth

• Strongly recommended for manganese deficient sites

• Reduces dependence on spray applications, to help with tricky weather conditions

• Fully compatible with all other seed treatments.

Prosper ST (N, P, K, Mg, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu,Bo, Mo) co applied with fungicide and pesticide seed treatments

• A phosphite and nutrient blend, providing a package of essential nutrition to the developing plant

• Phosphites stimulate and encourage enhanced root growth immediately after germination, providing larger and more efficient plant rooting

• Prosper ST can also result in increased shoot development, leading to thicker and more forward crops during establishment.

Winter Oilseed Rape Seed Treatments

Treatments available

In addition to a single purpose dressing, Frontier produced oilseed rape seed will be treated with the following added value treatments at no extra charge.

Prosper ST

(N, P, K, Mg, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, Bo, Mo) co-applied with fungicide seed treatments.

• Applying Phosphite to the seed facilitates encourages root growth immediately after germination and establishment

• Best responses come when sowing in less than ideal conditions, min-till establishment systems, and later drilling

• Increased shoot development, thicker crops during establishment

• Strengthens resistance to fungal attack - positive effect against pithium.

Seed Life

(N, P, K, Mg, Ca, Mg, S + Trace elements and growth promoters) Nutrition and Growth Promoter.

• Seed-Life is a natural liquid nutrient formulation applied directly to the seed to improve emergence and provide a healthier, more vigorous start for the seedling

• Nitrogen 2%, Phosphorus 9%, Potassium 6%

• More consistent germination, earlier more even emergence

• Larger healthier roots, increased yield potential, assists up take of moisture from the soil

• Makes nutrients and trace elements available in the immediate zone around the seed which are easily accessed by young roots, thus promoting optimum availability for early growth

• 20 continuous years of Frontier Seed Life trials show an average yield increase of 123kgs/ha, returning an additional £40/ha over single purpose dressed seed.

PolySeia* 500S

• High quality unique formulation polymer coating that positively impacts on germination in dry conditions

• Helps reduce dust

• Provides even coverage of other treatments

• Coloured to allow visibility in field to check drilling accuracy.

Mobile Seed Processing

Frontier offers a mobile seed processing and bulk grain cleaning service throughout the UK through its divisions Anglia Grain Services and GFP Agriculture.

With 33 high capacity mobile seed processors, operated by fully qualified, professional operators, we provide growers with a high standard of seed cleaning and related services.

Anglia Grain Services  Head office T: 01206 263334 South East T: 01797 252216 Peterborough T: 01832 274093 E: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Web: angliagrainservices.co.uk

GFP Agriculture Pegasus Road, Elsham Wold Industrial Estate Elsham, Nr Brigg, North Lincolnshire, DN20 0SQ T: 01652 636444 E: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Web: gfpagriculture.co.uk