05.09.07 - AWESOME OILSEEDS
If you needed any further proof that the Simba approach to establishing oilseed rape works, it comes from Dorset-based Sentry manager Richard Peck, who established 224 acres off the back of his 4.6m X-Press last autumn, and achieved a 1.35 tons/acre average across the whole farm, with 1.5t/a being achieved by a crop of the variety Astrid on better soils.
"Our normal average on this land - which is a mixture chalky downland and valleys -is between 1.1t/a and 1.2t/a, so 2006/7 has been our best oilseeds year ever - with the crucial extra advantage of being very cheap to establish!
"The crop established very quickly; it came up in five days and got away well in the autumn and looked good all year. Bearing in mind that it got flooded over the winter, then had to endue some very dry conditions this spring and then god flooded again early in the summer, it has done really well. But it was getting away to such a good start that was the key".
