Lincolnshire grower Tim Lamyman has defied the exceptionally dry season to bring in a record-breaking oilseed rape crop. Known for growing big crops, Mr Lamyman achieved an impressive 7.52t/ha in an 8ha field of September-sown LG Avenger at Worlaby Farm, near Louth – breaking the previous unofficial world record of 7.2t/ha, set in 2019 by Richard Budd.
Of 85ha of rape grown by Mr Lamyman this season, 80% was down to LG Avenger, sown from 10-20 September 2024. “All fields looked phenomenal throughout the season, with very little to choose between the sowing dates,” he said.
“It’s the first year I’ve grown LG Avenger and I absolutely love the variety. It has fantastic autumn vigour, which was one of the main reasons for choosing it,” said Mr Lamyman.
“We wanted a variety we can sow later to help mitigate flea beetle risk, and one that gets up and away quickly to establish a strong canopy going into the winter.”
Flea beetle
Working with Limagrain and United Oilseeds to develop ways of mitigating cabbage stem flea beetle damage, Mr Lamyman says sowing a vigorous variety later, ideally after the 5-10 September, is the best way to avoid the worst of flea beetle damage.
“Even though flea beetle pressure wasn’t particularly high last autumn, I can see that in a bad year, the vigour of LG Avenger will help get through those issues. If you’re later drilling and you’ve got that vigour, you’ve got a much better chance of getting a crop established than if you’ve drilled it earlier in the season.”
Mr Lamyman usually prepares all his oilseed rape ground using the farm’s Väderstad TopDown and Carrier cultivators, before sowing with a 6m Väderstad Rapid drill. “Because we are drilling later and have a lot of stones in our soil, we prefer a higher seed rate of 4 kg/ha; equivalent to around 65 seeds/m2, to make sure we establish a good, thick crop.”
Supporting the vigour of LG Avenger with a comprehensive nutrition programme is essential to building a big biomass crop and high yield potential, says Mr Lamyman. “It’s a big, bold plant, which you’re making grow even faster, so it’s all beneficial. We’ve seen in the past that going down the route of shorter, low biomass oilseed rape simply hasn’t worked, so in my view, the bigger the crop, the higher the yield.”
Nutrition
At Worlaby Farms, that nutrition programme centres around a range of products from Bionature UK, designed to support plant health and soil biology at different stages of the season. This begins at the 2-4 leaf stage, with an application of Leodita & Delta. Delta is a stabilised NH2 Nitrogen foliar application. Leodita is an organic soil improver that supports strong root development. Mr Lamyman says it is faster-acting than the standard DAP and autumn nitrogen approach.
“Trials on the farm this year showed that within four days of applying Leodita, there was 40-60% more crop biomass compared with oilseed rape that received DAP. That biomass difference didn’t stop all the way through the autumn. This is followed with foliar feeds in the autumn and spring, including a calcium-based product at flowering, to improve seed set.”
Management
“Growing a fast, vigorous variety like LG Avenger, with this kind of nutrition programme is the shield you need to get a late-drilled crop established very quickly in the autumn and probably gives as much biomass as something drilled three weeks earlier.” Managing the large biomass crop has not been an issue, he adds. “It’s a really well-structured variety, which also has the benefit of excellent pod shatter resistance.”
Mr Lamyman is sowing LG Avenger again across his entire 90ha of oilseed rape next season; a decision he had already made before crops were harvested, given how well they looked.