Building on a successful Oilseed YEN Establishment Beauty Contest in 2020, it is back for 2022 with kind sponsorship provided by BASF. The initiative, which is organised by ADAS, is set to encourage farmers to learn more about effective establishment practices together, as part of the wider Oilseed YEN programme. The Oilseed YEN has been running since 2016, and as a result of farmers being willing to share information about their crops, has enabled us to further our understanding of important factors for Oilseed Rape (OSR) yields.
As part of the Beauty Contest, growers will be asked to provide information about their plant population, CSFB adult damage and to upload pictures of the crop at the 4-6 true leaf stage as well as general agronomy information. Dr Sarah Kendall, Crop Physiologist and Oilseed YEN lead comments that
“We hope that by including a focus on establishment within Oilseed YEN, we are encouraging growers to build on the “measure to manage” approach and understand how their crop is performing at this crucial time. Sharing data is a crucial step in which we hope to accelerate the industry’s knowledge of the factors that are needed for good establishment of the crop”.
To make things fun, for all entered crops where the establishment data has been submitted, these will go through to an ‘Establishment Beauty Contest’ which will be judged by ADAS on the basis of % establishment, uniformity & evenness of the crop from the supplied photographs and information. There will be three drilling date sections: Early drilled (until 14th August), Standard drilled (15th Aug – 31st Aug), Late drilled (1st September onwards). Winners will be announced later in the year.
The Establishment Beauty Contest is being sponsored by BASF this season. Campaign Manager for OSR and break crops, Polly Lawman, explained
“the challenges around OSR establishment are talked about a lot, but are still not properly understood. We hope that this competition will enable us to look for trends in the dataset, to better understand what are the common factors which contribute towards a well established crop”.
Although current conditions are generally very dry, and many growers will be waiting for significant rainfall and the critical moisture before drilling, the YEN team are looking forward to engaging with growers over the coming months. To get involved and register a crop, or to find out more information please visit https://www.yen.adas.co.uk/join-oilseed-yen