North east leads charge in UK rapeseed yields

The north east of England is leading the UK’s rapeseed harvest to better-than-expected results, with some areas reporting record yields despite the dry spring, Offre & Demande Agricole said.

The consultancy’s first harvest report, compiled from a farmer survey, said that oilseed rape yields were "better than anticipated after the unseasonably dry weather earlier in the season", concurring with findings on Thursday from Adas.

Yields on average had, with about one-third of the harvest completed, improved 3.7% from last year, when, according to official data, they ended up at an all-time high of 3.5 tonnes per hectare.

The UK is the European Union’s third-ranked rapeseed producer, after Germany and France.

‘Record yields’

However, they had beaten 5 tonnes per hectare in parts of Yorkshire, which was, with the East Midlands, enjoying "record yields".

Yorkshire has not – at least in the last 12 years for which official data are readily accessible – achieved a yield above 3.9 tonnes per hectare. The top result in the East Midlands, the UK’s biggest rapeseed-growing region by area, is the 3.6 tonnes per hectare achieved last year.

Yields were "better than average" too further south in Cambridgeshire and Essex, reaching 4.0-4.5 tonnes per hectare, with similar figures from Hampshire.

In central areas, where harvest is only just beginning, initial results were "promising", with "early cuts higher than average in Oxfordshire", ODA said.

While cereals harvest is also only in its early stages, "the initial feedback is that the yields and quality are better than first expected", the consultancy added.

http://www.agrimoney.com/news/north-east-leads-charge-in-uk-rapeseed-yields–3418.html