Lincolnshire farmer Tim Lamyman has regained the world record oilseed rape yield with a 7.52t/ha crop of LG Avenger.
The 8ha field sown between the 10th and 20th of September defied the exceptionally dry season, breaking the unofficial world record of 7.2t/ha, set in 2019 by Kent farmer Richard Budd. “All fields looked phenomenal throughout the season, with very little to choose between the sowing dates,” Tim comments.
It’s the first year Tim has grown LG Avenger and he is delighted he did. “It has fantastic autumn vigour, which was one of the main reasons for choosing it. We wanted a variety we can sow later to help mitigate flea beetle risk (CSFB), and one that gets up and away quickly to establish a strong canopy going into the winter.”
He is convinced that sowing a vigorous variety later, ideally after 5-10 September, is the best way to avoid the worst of CSFB damage. “Even though flea beetle pressure wasn’t particularly high last autumn, I can see that in a bad year, the vigour of LG Avenger will help get through those issues. If you’re later drilling and you’ve got that vigour, you’ve got a much better chance of getting a crop established than if you’ve drilled it earlier in the season.”
All of his oilseed rape ground is usually prepared using the farm’s Väderstad TopDown and Carrier cultivators, before sowing with a 6m Väderstad Rapid drill. “Because we are drilling later and have a lot of stones in our soil, we prefer a higher seed rate of 4 kg/ha; equivalent to around 65 seeds/m2, to make sure we establish a good, thick crop.”
Nutrition boost
The result is also down to a comprehensive nutrition programme. Centered around a range of products from Bionature UK and designed to support plant health and soil biology at different stages of the season.
“It’s a big, bold plant, which you’re making grow even faster, so it’s all beneficial. We’ve seen in the past that going down the route of shorter, low biomass oilseed rape simply hasn’t worked, so in my view, the bigger the crop, the higher the yield.”
This begins at the 2-4 leaf stage, with an application of Leodita & Delta. Delta is a stabilised NH2 Nitrogen foliar application. Leodita is an organic soil improver that supports strong root development, and is faster-acting than the standard DAP and autumn nitrogen approach, Tim says.
“Indeed, trials on the farm this year showed that within four days of applying Leodita, there was 40-60% more crop biomass compared with oilseed rape that received DAP. That biomass difference didn’t stop all the way through the autumn.
“This is followed with foliar feeds in the autumn and spring, including a calcium-based product at flowering, to improve seed set.
“Growing a fast, vigorous variety like LG Avenger, with this kind of nutrition programme over the top, gives you the ‘shield’ you need to get a late-drilled crop established very quickly in the autumn and probably gives as much biomass as something drilled three weeks earlier.”
Managing the large biomass crop wasn’t an issue, Tim considering it a “well-structured variety”, which also has the benefit of excellent pod shatter resistance.
Disease control was fairly straightforward, based around a standard programme including tebuconazole, prothioconazole, azoxystrobin and one SDHI fungicide. “It’s nothing very expensive, yet crops have stayed really clean throughout.”
Following the result, Tim is sowing the variety across his entire OSR area next season.
