OSR Seed for Autumn 2014

Whilst the Russian-fuelled price rally has encouraged both old and new crop values higher in recent weeks, President Putin isn’t exactly revealing any details of his next move and the trade has thus fallen relatively quiet this week.

Furthermore, the currently mild but dry American weather forecast is showing no signs of any change and whilst this does provide a threat to winter crops there, most of the information currently feeding the market place is speculative.

The only fresh news feeding the market this week appears to be Monday’s USDA data and although prospective American plantings are marginally lower, stocks of both maize corn and wheat combined are around 15% higher than previously thought; adding further pressure to the already drifting new crop values.

As a result, I have very little fresh news to inform you of this week and I therefore thought it would be a good time to run through some of the new OSR varieties for drilling this coming autumn.

According to the current 2014/2015 HGCA recommended list, Incentive 45, a variety bred by DSV is this year’s highest yielding hybrid variety.

With a gross output of 105%, Incentive 45 yields 5% higher than former favourite’s DK Expower and Compass – and 3% higher than the popular variety Avatar.

Furthermore, Incentive 45 also boasts one of the highest oil contents on the entire recommended list at 45.8% – which at an assumed market level of £300/T ex-farm (ever the optimist) is an additional £26.10 per tonne; or £756.90 per 29 tonne lorry load in oil bonuses alone.

In addition to its consistent performance both in trials and anecdotally on farm, Incentive 45 also provides “sustained and aggressive growth over the first six weeks after drilling and consequently develops more leaves in the first 45 days than any other variety on the recommended list”.

For those of you who prefer to grow conventional OSR, Charger, a variety bred by KWS, is this year’s leading variety with a yield of 105% – 4% higher than last year’s preferred variety DK Cabernet and on par with that of this year’s leading hybrid.

In comparison Amalie, another new conventional variety currently in National List Trials this year, offers a far lower yield of 99.8%. If we again assume a market value of say £300/T ex-farm and use the average yield as indicated by the recommended list of 5.4T/Ha, Charger offers almost £100 more than Amalie across every hectare drilled.

According to Rose Riby, a regional variety specialist from KWS, “Charger is a very vigorous, lower biomass variety with exceptional autumn growth that is both hybrid-like and erect. It can also cope well with later drilling, providing flexibility on farm”. Rose also added that the variety also has reasonable early maturity and this, backed by its excellent canopy, makes Charger easy to combine.

For more information regarding both Incentive 45 and Charger or any other varieties on this year’s recommended list, please contact the office via the details given below.