Arable crops

17th Sept 2025

By the time this is published most will have finished drilling oilseed rape, but as some was drilled back in July, there will be a lot of variation around the country.

With predictions of a 20-30% increase in oilseed area for the 2026 season, how can we make sure that crop makes it through establishment and is set up for winter? One of my previous articles spoke of utilising NPKs at or ASAP after drilling, but what other nutrition is required for the oilseed crop?

Oilseed is a very leafy, high biomass crop and therefore autumn growth can easily deplete the micronutrients the crop is able to access in the soil. We don’t want to cause any limiting factors for the crop during the early growth stages, we want the crop to establish a good root system that will set it up well for spring regrowth after winter. Foliar nutrition can indeed help with this.

For those that drilled early an application of YaraVita Magphos K, which as the name suggests contains magnesium, phosphate and potassium. Foliar phosphate is much more efficient at getting into the crop via the leaf and is part of energy transfer in the plant. An early application of 3l/ha to oilseed at the 2-4 leaf stage is a great way to help with root and shoot growth of the young plants and can be added in with a volunteer cereal herbicide for example.

You can then follow that with an application of 3l/ha of YaraVita Brassitrel Pro once the crop gets to 4-8 true leaves. If you only have one chance to spray then apply the YaraVita Brassitrel Pro, it is the crop-specific mixture for oilseed and contains all the key nutrients such as Mg, Mn, Mo, B and Ca, setting the crop up for overwinter survival. Results from long-term YaraVita Brassitrel Pro trials show a yield increase of 0.3 t/ha from an application in both the autumn and followed up in spring, the two applications giving you a 4:1 return on investment.