A drive again from dropping my brother-in-law off at Heathrow just lately gave a great alternative to see how everybody else’s oilseed rape crops are progressing.
My conclusion was the nearer I acquired to our farm in Lincolnshire, the more serious they appeared.
Except our two smallest fields, anyone driving previous our farm would do properly to know we planted OSR in any respect. We’re at present debating if any of our redrilling is sweet sufficient to maintain.
Cabbage stem flea beetle had already devoured 75% of the realm we drilled in August and they’re at present tucking into that very same redrilled space once more.
See additionally: Chris Bennett – the place has all of the BPS cash gone?
In regards to the creator
Chris Bennett
Chris Bennett has a level in physics and a graduate diploma in agriculture. He farmed in Wakanui on the Canterbury Plains of New Zealand earlier than returning in 2022 to the arable and beef farm he grew up on close to Louth in Lincolnshire.
What rubs salt within the wound is seeing media stories that this 12 months hasn’t been too dangerous for flea beetle. It’s definitely our worst.
Has anybody else been out at night time to see the flea beetle at work? After I appeared, there have been as many flee beetle as there have been rape crops.
We tried spraying them with a pyrethroid at night time hoping for higher management, however discovered they had been resistant, as they had been simply as straightforward to search out after as they had been earlier than.
So is it time to surrender on OSR altogether, or can we strive once more subsequent 12 months hoping it is going to be higher? It jogs my memory of the Einstein quote:
“The definition of madness is doing the identical factor time and again and anticipating totally different outcomes.”
We have now modified what we are able to – spraying pesticides at night time, mixing hybrid and traditional varieties, drilling early and drilling late, nevertheless it appears the one method to assure you don’t have a flea beetle downside is to not develop OSR in any respect.
In farming we are likely to make too many selections based mostly on what occurred the earlier 12 months. It’s probably an overreaction to surrender utterly after one 12 months of failure.
In reality it has been 10 years since neonicotinoids had been banned and that is the primary 12 months we have now had critical issues. When subsequent 12 months rolls round, we’ll most likely strive once more.
