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Oilseed Rape
Hybrid Oilseed Rape
Almost 40% of the UK oilseed rape crop is now sown to hybrids. Most plant breeders see the significant potential improvements are likely to be developed using hybrid techniques and are therefore concentrating their efforts here.
Historically we have seen very popular hybrids develop mainly due to the consistency of yield and more vigorous growth habit. Excalibur is the ideal example of this. They have been particularly favoured on lighter land, however we are now seeing that the very best gross outputs and consistency of performance are being achieved with hybrids such as PR46W21 and the newly introduced Avatar. Hybrids such as these are likely to take a larger share of the market in the future even though the seed costs are more than conventional varieties.
Hybrid breeding techniques are also being used to produce the ultimate in low biomass varieties in the Semi Dwarf hybrids. Thorin is the highest yielding of the Semi Dwarf hybrids being comparable in yield to some of the most popular non dwarf varieties in the UK. With a straw length of just 132 cm Thorin should result in less damage to the crop at spraying and a faster, more efficient harvest whilst not losing out on yield, as has been the case with semi dwarf hybrids prior to now.
Conventional Oilseed Rape
With the area sown to hybrids increasing each year and some plant breeders no longer breeding conventional rape varieties a yield differential is likely to develop between hybrid and conventional varieties. However, the difference between the two is currently relatively small.
Top yielding conventional varieties like Cabernet and Sesame are only a few percent behind the top hybrids. Both varieties are widely grown in the UK but they have shown some inconsistency recently and their late maturity has presented issues with the rape harvest starting to clash with the early maturing wheat’s.
Vision and Fashion have proved to be slightly early and more consistent performer locally.
Our top selling conventional variety is Cubic. Cubic did not make the HGCA list but when in trials it was second only to PR46W21 in the Western Region, beating Cabernet and all other conventional and hybrid types. It is a very short strawed variety with good stem canker resistance and an exceptionally high oil content. The real reason however that has seen it gain popularity with large oilseed rape growers are in its very early maturity. It is the earliest variety available which has made is a very valuable management tool on farm at harvest time when most other high yielding types grown are later or medium maturity at best.