Lincolnshire grower Tim Lamyman, has snatched back his oilseed rape world record from the Kiwis with a phenomenal 6.7t/ha yield from a crop of conventional variety Picto.
Mr Lamyman set a record last August with a 6.14t/ha gross yield for Charger, only to see it beaten earlier this year by New Zealand grower Chris Dennison with a 6.31t/ha crop.
This year’s oilseed rape was in a better field and benefitted from a better nutritional package, but to smash the world record by almost 0.4t/ha is a major achievement.
“The Picto looked exceptional at late flowering and at harvest it stood well, was very thick and the best looking crop we’ve seen on the farm,” says Tim.
Farming on the Lincolnshire Wolds at Worlaby, Mr Lamyman selected Picto on the back of its better resistance to light leaf spot disease, which has become more of a problem on his farm over the last five years.
The record which was set on a 8.21ha field harvested on Wednesday, last week, was independently assessed by machinery consultants Bill Basford and David Pullen, who have been involved with a number of other world record attempts.
Each trailer load was sampled and weighed at Glebe Farm, Belchford and weights were adjusted to take into account diesel consumption at the start and end of the four hour combining period.
Working with agronomist Simon Shaw from Farmacy part of the Hutchinsons group he fed the crop on a little and often basis utilizing seven foliar feeds over the year to avoid plant stress and keep the crop on target for a high yield potential.
Three foliar feeds in the autumn ensured good establishment and a well rooted crop the last two calcium-based foliar feeds of Calflux were applied with flowering fungicides flowering. “Ensuring good calcium supply to the seed helped with pod survival and produced bigger pods,” he says.
