Hello, my n ame's Ken Rundle. And in this latest podcast, we're focusing on oilseed rape with me as M ark Tucker, head of agronomy with Y ara. T he ra pe s e ed c rop is already being harvested now an d i n some areas at least. So this is an ideal time perhaps to review reflect, and then perhaps plan for next season, be cause i t's true to say, growing oilseed, right. These days can be a challenge.
Yeah. And you're absolutely right Ken that we have to recognize that there's a very serious challenge here in terms of growing the oilseed crop and providing we recognize that then we can really think about how we meet that challenge. There's some good lessons that we're learning as the sort of harvest is just starting in that where those crops were established. Well, then they are still, you know, delivering some reasonable yields sort of 3.7 tons a hectare.
So the gross margin then does fit in nicely still. So it's really about how we can get that crop off to the best start possible.
Because as fewer growers pick up oilseed, right. Then the market becomes the market price becomes stronger. So it's still a market that's worth going for, if you can get past the problems that some farmers have had with things like flea beetle, et cetera.
Absolutely. And , um, yeah , there's still that element that , um , there's a market for an outlet and, you know, if there isn't an abundance of it, then, you know , the grower should see a rise in that value, and so then a combination of value and tons per hectare should bring in and make it one of still the top performing crops. If you can get it away , um , you know, outlet drilling time,
I suppose the key word here is momentum, getting it established, getting it moving and keeping it moving. How do we achieve all of that?
Yeah, its a word that momentum, which has been picked up a lot in recent years, particularly the yield enhancement network, which we've been involved with, and then momentum has been a key theme that's come through from that, that success successful crops come from building that momentum right from the start and what we're saying, really with the oilseed crop, there are sort of opportunities that can help with A. Getting that momentum going and then keeping it on track for the season.
So the starting point really very much is , um , getting it away as it germinates and out of the ground and establish as quickly as possible, and that's a combination there of the utilization of a seed treatment and we've had that work running for the first time this year, where we're looking at the manganese phosphate, seed treatment to really accelerate and bring even emergence and establishment, and then we build on that through the use of fertilizer, either placed fertilizer in the ideal
world, so that that's just positioned below that germinating seed so that as the roots develop and grow and they grow into that seam of fertilizer and keep that momentum going.
If you haven't got the ability to place fertilizer, it's not a problem because especially if you use a seed treatment, because that buys you a bit of time for that nutrient, that you may broadcast at planting , um , just buys you a little bit of time as that nutrient from the broadcast application gets into the soil profile and there then picked up as the reach develop .
Now that seed treatment can be done on farm if necessary.
Yeah, absolutely. It's , you know, what would say is really, you know , for the farmer to speak to their seed supplier or their seed treatment dressing unit, depending on how they do it , if they use their own seed and get in contact with those seed suppliers and see what they can offer, but yet it's available out there, manganese phosphate or GLYTREL is the product that we've been focusing on in the trials.
And it's had some success ?
Yeah, yeah. Very much, very pleased so far. And I think that the real notable thing from , um, right from the start was the evenness of the germination, and often we see fields that are very patchy and this was field scale trials because we're very much in the development phase there, and we want to try and get that , that even-ness across a whole field, because often the challenge is patchy crops .
So really if we can get that oilseed, even from hedge to hedge, if you like, or ditch to ditch, then that really sort of does give us a sort of good foundation for success and the trials that came through. Yes, we doubled the plant population in terms of germination percentage and establishment percentage, which was great, and then not only did we see that doubling of the plant establishment , we saw double the shoot weight above ground and four times the root weight below ground.
So it really did give us a robust, resilient plant as we headed towards Christmas.
And it doesn't cost that much ?
No. I mean, again, speak to the seed supplier in terms of treatment cost in terms of getting it actually applied how that package works, but in terms of nutrient, then we've calculated out on using five kilograms of hectare seed and five liters per ton of seed treated. Then that's 10p per hectare. So very, very minor investment for, to try and really sort of help with that establishment.
The interesting point there too, was that as far as, as well as yield, it was the fact that the soil itself is getting all the value of those roots growing down through it, particularly if you're thinking about the longer rotations around cereals , et cetera. Yeah. I mean, we know that, you know , I'm below ground biomass is really key in terms of rotations or structure.
Um, so yeah, always, you know , those sort of added benefits that you get with a big root system, But that only works well, at least you'll only get success with that. If you think about the next part of the system, this isn't a one shot program, is it ?
No, absolutely. And I think, you know , almost, I often refer to it as a sort of a bit of a jigsaw puzzle there and making sure you get all the pieces, right, because we we've noted again in previous work that if we do a seed treatment and we don't follow that up with some nutrition, then we can undo all the good that we do with the seed treatment.
So very much think about it as a programmed approach from seed treatment, autumn stroke, that sort of seed and fertilizer weather please to broadcast. And then the third element I'd say to the whole of this is to keep that momentum going through to Christmas. And we do that by then just making sure that through tissue analysis, through historic data that we might have for the farm on the field, make sure there aren't other nutrients that could be missing and therefore come into limit.
And if you like put a, put a brake on that growth that we've set off with our early two sort of components. So yeah, that then the final bit of the jigsaw, the sort of fourth is assessing that crop at Christmas, which can help towards planning , um , the spring, spring nutrition plan.
This is all about growing healthy crops because so much has been lost in the armory in terms of pesticides and herbicides. Um, now it is very much a case of trying to help the plant do as much as it can on its own, but that really to do that, it's got to be in the best condition possible.
Yeah . Um , there's always two elements to a crop nutrition program then firstly it's, if you like building the crop growth itself for biomass, because we know that biomass equates to high yield. But the other c omponent t o crop nutrition is the fact that you really do help the plant have its own defense mechanism. A nd a lot of the micronutrients, particularly t here a re sort of precursors to the own sort of inbuilt, u m, immune system of the p lant.
So if we get those right, then again, it just adds resilience and robustness to the crop to fend off pathogens t hat a gain, want to come in and affect the crop growth.
And how many people are taking this approach. Is this something you're beginning to see more of around the country?
There's, there's a reasonable number of farms, still, not everyone, but there's quite a number of farms that do seed bed fertilizer , um , either broadcaster place, but there's very, very few that would do a nutrient seed treatments . So I think that really does open up an opportunity to, especially those growers that are perhaps giving it one last chance, then reflect on, you know, what you have got, right, and maybe some of the new things that could just come in.
And if you give that all, see the shot in the arm and it knees just to make it all to continue it to be part of the rotation.
We've only got a limited amount of time here, but there's a webinar available on the Yara website isn't there where you were able to go into this in a bit more detail .
Yes, we had a webinar just the other evening. So, and that's now up there for viewing on demand. And again, that's in conjunction with DSV seeds there as well. So there's some good comments and just some good advice and guidance throughout that webinar, just in terms of nutrition, traits of varieties , seed rates and that sort of drilling window, a bit of advice in all of that. So well worth the lesson. Um, and of course get in touch if we want to go into more sort of in detail conversation.
Because after all the next crops got to go in the ground pretty quickly and uh, with, with the grain harvest coming up as well, there's a lot to think about, but farmers should be certainly planning ahead.
Yeah, I think now is the time if you like, because suddenly harvest will start and has started for some, and it's only going to get busier from now on , and this sort of operation starts to clash on farms. So you don't get that much thinking time and planning time, but really these next few days and weeks at a time to plan ahead and really plan to succeed rather than , um , and I plan to fail.
So let's really go with a positive approach and see what we can do to plan, to be successful with this crop.
Mark, some very good points to ponder there. Thank you Mark Tucker, and I'd recommend that webinar, but the next Yara podcast will be about potatoes. You can join me Ken Rundle about a week from now.