United Kingdom
August 1, 2025
Peter and Robert Nickols, Lincolnshire: prompt establishment and a vigorous variety.
DE Nickols & Sons
Robert and Peter Nickols of DE Nickols & Sons near Sleaford in Lincolnshire are growing 40ha of OSR this year on their 430ha farm. They say they are one of the only farms in the area still growing OSR, which was once the main non-cereal break crop for most of their neighbours.
Although the OSR has halved on the farm since its peak, replaced by beans grown for seed, Robert and Peter have continued to make OSR pay. They put their success in continuing to grow OSR down to timeliness at establishment and choosing a vigorous variety.
“We learned that waiting for balers to arrive doesn’t work, so we now chop the straw,” says Robert.
“The tractor is on the drill before we start harvest,” adds Peter. “As soon as the field is cleared, we have the seed ready and it’s in. We’ve had a few years where the drill is in the same field as the combine.”
The dedicated OSR drill is a low disturbance subsoiler mounted on a Grange toolbar, with an attached Weaving mounted drill and StocksAg Turbo Jet. They place the seed in 50cm rows with a typical seed rate of 50 seeds/M2, and a starter fertiliser is applied at the same time.
This drill setup evolved from a previous method where the land was subsoiled, and the crop was planted using a Vaderstadt drill that went crossways to the subsoiling. “The only place where there were strong plants was where the subsoiler leg had been, so we thought: why waste money sowing in between?” says Robert.
Buckwheat is sown using a spreader as the first pass in the field post-drilling, helping to hide the crop from cabbage stem flea beetle (CSFB) and securing £55 /Ha for the CIPM3 SFI action.
The cousins moved from growing conventional varieties, often as farm-saved seed, to exclusively growing hybrids for their vigour.
Robert says: “When CSFB was first an issue, we took to view that home-saved seed wouldn’t cost as much if we lost the crop, but we did it at the detriment to vigour.
“We have moved back to hybrids and have used the cask back establishment schemes on occasions.”
This year, they are growing RGT Kanzzas, which they chose for vigour. “At the time, it was the one that stood out. We’ve noticed its vigour this year,” remarks Peter.
Building Biomass, Building Yield
Despite the range of variety traits available to oilseed rape growers, still the most desired attribute for an oilseed rape variety is vigour.
Driven by its vigour and disease resistance, RGT Kanzzas followed a strong 2023 performance in Agrii variety trials by finishing the second highest yielding variety in 2024, says David Leaper, Agrii seed technical manager. This was an average of four sites located across the country.
“One thing that we have looked at is late autumn biomass, analysing how big the plants are going into winter,” he explains.
“What has driven our variety choice over the last few years is varieties that grow relatively quickly, producing a big plant with a nice thick stem. Not only are they better at coping with cabbage CSFB, but they are also less vulnerable to weather conditions and pigeons.”
Early spring vigour is a factor Agrii correlates against assessed levels of CSFB. David says they see a close relationship between spring vigour and lower CSFB symptoms, a key factor in how Agrii choose varieties to bring to market.
“Generally speaking, the higher the biomass, the lower the symptoms.”
Guy Shelby, Yorkshire: taking the rough with the smooth
Shelby Farming is based east of Bishop Burton in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The local climate means they can produce big yields if the conditions allow. Guy’s OSR crop for harvest 2022 averaged 6.7t/ha, delivering an incredible return considering the commodity prices at the time.
“On heavy coastal soils and with cool bright days, those kinds of yields aren’t uncommon in this area, and it’s the same with wheat,” says Agrii agronomist Billy Hosdell.
However, things went the opposite direction last season. “It’s just a lottery,” says Guy “In 2023, I drilled 250 acres and had 30 acres left to harvest. This year, nothing has eaten my rape apart from pigeons.”
Shelby Farming hosts an Agrii iFarm site where Billy used a Bayer Magic Trap to record the levels of adult CSFB last summer and found very few. In 2023, using a traditional trap, Billy caught 30 beetles per trap each day in the morning, and when he checked them as he returned home in the evening, he found another 30.
Guy has gone full circle with his establishment method and arrived back at using a subsoiler. He also plants a companion crop, qualifying for the CIPM3 SFI action.
RGT Kanzzas
“Our best yields all came from when we were using subsoilers. Then we started using a Mzuri; I think it’ one of the best rape drills on the market. We switched systems and moved to a Horsch Sprinter, which worked well, but the yields started dipping off because it doesn’t have a deep leg. Now we’ve gone back to a subsoiler,” explains Guy.
Following a conversation with Tim Lammyman at Cereals, Guy replicated his approach of sowing conventional and hybrid varieties by planting Inv1035 and Aardvark together. The theory is that CSFB focus on the slower-growing conventional variety, leaving the hybrid to grow away. There’s also the potential benefit that the shorter conventional complements the taller hybrid, providing a greater depth of podding through the canopy.
“A lot of people would love to stop growing rape, but what do they do instead?” adds Billy. “We have vining peas in the area, but you can only grow them one in five. We’ve struggled to control the bruchid beetle in beans, so we can only grow for animal feed. A few more obscure things are being grown, but they tend to be one-hit wonders.”
“A non-oilseed rape rotation is quite a challenge. It becomes a lot of second wheat, spring barley and oats.”
Ben Wilson, Oxfordshire: marginal gains and regenerative practices
“It’s like the Dave Brailsford method,” says Ben Wilson, Farm Manager at Glympton Farms, on the edge of the Cotswolds in Oxfordshire. They have gone from OSR being on the verge of leaving the rotation to a consistent performer.
In the ten years before the 2013 ban on neonicotinoids in OSR, Glympton Farms averaged 3.27t/ha, a respectable return on their drought-prone soils. However, since the ban, this dropped to 2.57t/ha, leading to a review of OSR’s place in the rotation.
“At that point, I came up with some cultural control measures, which I wanted Ben to implement,” says Peter Carr, Agrii agronomist. “The first year, we didn’t quite get things as we wanted them to. Last year, we successfully lined up everything, and this crop yielded 3.43t/ha, which is back up to where we expected yields to be before the (neonicotinoid) ban.”
Their first step was to extend OSR in the rotation to one in five. “We’ve gone into fifths. There are two-fifths wheat, one-fifth barley, one-fifth OSR and one-fifth beans,” explains Ben.
Peter adds: “We’re cutting stubble long, at 20-30cm, and anything before OSR is chopped. This means that the burden of straw on the soil surface is about 15mm, so you don’t get a thick 50mm mat of straw, which is associated with high slug pressure.
“The long stubble acts as a physical and visual barrier to CSFB. You can’t tell there’s OSR being grown on the farm until October because the plants are so well hidden in the stubbles.
“The most impressive thing with the chopped straw layer is how it has helped with weed seed suppression; it’s led to a 40% reduction in herbicide use.”
An application of poultry manure balances the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio of the chopped straw and provides some available nitrogen in the autumn to build biomass ahead of winter.
RGT Kanzzas: Driven by vigour and disease resistance
They opt for a conventional variety with strong spring growth to get the growing point away in mid-February, in this case, Amarone. “It’s a steady grower through the autumn and then really moves as soon as the soil warms up in the spring,” explains Ben.
The drill is slightly offset against the previous wheat crop to plant between the rows of stubble, keeping it intact and allowing the OSR roots to utilise the old root system of the wheat crop.
8 kg/ha of buckwheat and 4 kg/ha of purple vetch are used as companion crops. The buckwheat provi
des a canopy over the OSR, and its roots mine phosphate, which is released to the crop roots later when the frost kills it. By leaving the vetch in the crop for as long into the spring as possible, it can fix 30 – 50kgN/ha.
Their measures have paid off again this year, with Glympton Farms OSR looking full of promise as it finishes flowering. Peter and Ben hope it will at least match last year’s output.
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