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NATIONAL STUDY HIGHLIGHTS OSR IMPROVEMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Date added: 26/03/07 |
Better performing oilseed rape crops generated gross margins nearly 40% higher than the average and well over double those earned by their poorer performing contemporaries last season, reveals ProCam Agronomy’s latest annual OSR performance study.
Conducted with the company’s powerful 4cast crop management service database, the study shows top 25% crops generating margins of £474/ha from yields of 4.11 tonnes in 2006. This compares with £342/ha from 3.46 t/ha and just £202/ha from 2.83 t/ha for average and bottom 25% crops respectively.
As well as higher yields, records from more than 500 separate crops highlight noticeably lower per hectare growing costs amongst the better performers – £224 against £246 for the average and £279 for the poorer performers. The net result was a substantially lower unit of production – £55/t against £71 and £99 respectively (Table 1).
ProCam 4cast OSR Crop Performance 2006
Top 25%
Yield (t/ha): 4.11
Variable cost (£/ha): 224
Variable cost (£/t): 55
Gross margin (£/ha): 474
Average
Yield (t/ha): 3.46
Variable cost (£/ha): 246
Variable cost (£/t): 71
Gross margin (£/ha): 342
Bottom 25%
Yield (t/ha): 2.83
Variable cost (£/ha): 279
Variable cost (£/t): 99
Gross margin (£/ha): 202
“The substantial increase in OSR prices seen over the past year means markedly higher across-the board margins than 2005,” notes ProCam technical agronomist, Nick Myers.
“Based upon average returns, we increased the standard price we use to remove the effect of any crop marketing differences from £140/t the year before to £170/t in 2006 – a rise of just over 20%.
“On average, recorded gross margins were £74/ha up on 2005. That’s an improvement of 28% despite yields down by around a quarter of a tonne per hectare as a result of the poorer growing season.
“Were yields to have been maintained at the 2005 average of 3.72 t/ha, the average year-on-year margin improvement would have been comfortably over £100/ha,” he adds.
“This and the continuing gap between the better performing crops and the average, let alone the poorer performers, clearly underlines the great potential UK growers have to improve oilseed rape performance by making the most of today’s high output varieties and agronomic practices.
“More detailed analysis of our crop records gives some valuable indications as to how this might best be achieved,” points out Nick Myers. “Variety selection is clearly a key area. While a total of 26 different varieties were grown overall, only 16 featured among the top 25% performing crops. What’s more, three quarters of these were in five key varieties and a third of them in just one (Figure).”
The range of performance within the Castille crops that dominated the 4cast top 25% also underlines the critical importance of agronomy.
“While these crops generated an average margin of £468/ha, 32% of them achieved more than £500/ha and the best £586/ha,” Nick Myers reports. “Similarly, while yields averaged 4.09 t/ha, 32% of the top performing Castille crops produced over 4.3t/ha and the best 5.06t/ha. And 22% of the crops cost less than £200/ha to grow against an average of £253/ha.
“On average the crops yielding 4.3 t/ha and above received 3.0 insecticide and 2.78 fungicide treatments compared to the average of 2.2 and 2.3 respectively.”
In addition to selecting consistently high yielding varieties that are as easy and economic to grow as possible, Nick Myers identifies five key elements of agronomy that invariably seem to be associated with the highest margin OSR crops.
- Good quality seedbeds;
- High quality seed sown at a rate that gives the optimum plant population;
- Canopies managed for the most efficient light interception through well-timed fertilisation and growth regulation;
- Effective disease and insect control – especially with the increasing intensity of OSR growing; and,
- Good harvest management to minimise combining losses and costs.
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