Winter Oilseed Rape Tips

Fantastic opportunity for sowing
 
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News alert....

We’re going to leave the plough in the shed and plant WOSR with a strip till drill.

Hopefully it won’t end in tears.....

A van with some men in white coats has been spotted leaving Cork city heading east. They have the new autumn collection of straight jackets that they want to try out....:eek3:

It’s after spring barley, light free draining and last ploughed at the very end of April 2018 :lol:

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Be wary of what was sprayed on the Barley. A few fields local germinated lovely but died when the rain came which activated a previously sprayed herbicide. They probably got away with it in wet years but the dry year caught them out .
Even CMPP is a residual herbicide.
 
Be wary of what was sprayed on the Barley. A few fields local germinated lovely but died when the rain came which activated a previously sprayed herbicide. They probably got away with it in wet years but the dry year caught them out .
Even CMPP is a residual herbicide.

Thanks, It’s something that was on my mind.

It only received a 50% rate of Cameo max and nothing else but that was only 3 months ago.....
GPS section control so should be v little overlap.
I’ve seen other places where it was sprayed and Charlock appears to be growing happily in open areas where there was no crop so that eases my mind....
 
News alert....

We’re going to leave the plough in the shed and plant WOSR with a strip till drill.

Hopefully it won’t end in tears.....

A van with some men in white coats has been spotted leaving Cork city heading east. They have the new autumn collection of straight jackets that they want to try out....:eek3:

It’s after spring barley, light free draining and last ploughed at the very end of April 2018 :lol:

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Ideal conditions for it, what is the cost saving over the usual plough based system?
 
Ideal conditions for it, what is the cost saving over the usual plough based system?

I’d say €10-20 per acre at most but that’s definitely not reason why we’re trying it.
€50/ac could be lost in a heartbeat by a poor crop.

This should get the crop in the ground 4-5 days sooner and we should be surer of having soil moisture for germination.
 
Gave it one slow (10kph) run of the roller.

Followed the drill runs exactly so the rings firmed it well.

I’m happy with the look of things except for the odd clump of straw (a run of a straw rake would have sorted them if I thought of it).

There’ll be lots of barley volunteers but I’ll be ready for them. Found one slug.

Was aiming for 50 seeds/m2, seed used indicates 53 were sown but doubling on headlands would explain this.

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Anyone spread slug pellets on rape yet.
I only found one slug under one out of 6 traps.
Sowed 10 days @ 50 seeds/ha I didn’t count but establishment so far looks a bit thin just wondering could the juvenile slugs be nipping off the stem before their up.
 
Anyone spread slug pellets on rape yet.
I only found one slug under one out of 6 traps.
Sowed 10 days @ 50 seeds/ha I didn’t count but establishment so far looks a bit thin just wondering could the juvenile slugs be nipping off the stem before their up.

I spread pellets today. Rape just emerging on land that wouldn’t have a slug history. Could see some grazing on the barley volunteers so wasn’t going to take the chance.

I haven’t seen slugs ever take rape before it emerges. I know they can hollow out the seed but it would require a fluffy seedbed and a big mob of slugs I’d say.
 
Haven’t seen any palnts grazed yet.
Defiantly not fluffy I ring rolled pre and post sowing.
It’s probably not all up yet (I hope)
 
Well it’s up anyway!

I’ll spray off the volunteers in 7-10 days once I’m satisfied that they’re pretty much all germinated.

10mm of rain last night and still falling. This is its second drop.

The volunteers are like Canaries in a coal mine in terms of slug activity. No evidence of activity. I gave it a 3/4 rate of pellets during the week just in case, I’ve seen rape disappear overnight so I won’t take chances.

Very impressed with the planter, plants emerging well even where straw is present in a few places.
Stones didn’t deter it either.

Long way to go but I really like the way that the undisturbed “shoulders” at each side of the planted row protect the tilth where the seeds are from compaction from wheels. I think compaction really hits oilseed rape.

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Elgar sowed @ 3 Kg/Ha
Did headlands for slugs as it’s cute hoors coming out of de ditch that let hedge cutter get around field without driving on crop. No flea beetle damage.
Cold snap this autumn won’t do it any harm
 
Planning on spraying volunteer barley out of rape at the next opportunity. Very little fle beetle damage like about one plant in 10 and even at that the damage is very limited. I’m wondering will I leave the insecticide out of the tank.
 

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Planning on spraying volunteer barley out of rape at the next opportunity. Very little fle beetle damage like about one plant in 10 and even at that the damage is very limited. I’m wondering will I leave the insecticide out of the tank.
It's gone beyond the harmful stage so I'd leave it out.
Are all ye lads with rape buying store lambs this winter!!!!
 
Just doing a few plant counts to see where we are.

Target is about 35 plants/m2 in spring. Average of a few counts is 35-40 so happy days.

I want a low population of strong plants. Expansion is a big vigorous variety.

A great year for establishing rape. Not a single weak patch to be seen, even out to the corners. All the little bits add up.
Barley volunteers dying off following a run of Falcon.

Very happy with the job so far although I’ve plenty of time to make a balls of it.

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Even where there was straw, the plants have come through.

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In hindsight, the slurry probably wasn’t necessary. We had similarly strong crops in Autumn 2011 and ended up making a mess of it. Planning a more cautious approach this year.
 
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