An OSR Growers Diary
By Rob Bebbington
Introduction
Rob Bebbington is operations manager for Fieldfare Farmers, a Shropshire based contract farming partnership that pools the land resources of eight local farmers to create a 1,600 acre arable enterprise.
Fieldfare Farmers manages 1,600 acres of arable land on behalf of its eight farmer members
The company was founded in 1999 by Rob's father, Charles, and neighbouring farmer Peter Taylor when they decided to work together to reduce machinery costs and improve cropping efficiencies. Now in its tenth year, the company is block-cropping each parcel of land and sharing the input costs and profits equally across the group. Each member of the syndicate now benefits from the economies of scale, buying power and cropping efficiencies that they wouldn't have been able to take advantage of as individual enterprises.
Rob's role as operations manager is to oversee the day-to-day field operations and to manage the crops which are typically grown on a rotation of OSR or beans after wheat, oats and spring barley.
Rob Bebbington is responsible for the day-to-day field operations at Fieldfare Farmers
For the 2009/10 season, Fieldfare Farmers is growing three different varieties of oilseed rape:
FLASH
Flash, a restored hybrid that is suitable for planting throughout the UK. Flash is one of the best performing varieties on the HGCA’s Recommended List with a gross output of 105% in the East & West and 112% in the North. Flash also provides a high oil content of 43.9% in the East & West region and 44.9% in the North.
DK CABERNET
DK Cabernet is an outstanding RL Candidate which combines a very high oil content of 46.3% with an exceptional seed yield. These characteristics have resulted in DK Cabernet having the highest gross output for both the UK and the East & West region (115%) from two years in national list trials.
EXCALIBUR
Excalibur is a medium biomass hybrid, which gives consistent yields and high gross output in all conditions. It can be drilled from the end of August to mid-September and has exceptionally high hybrid vigour, aiding autumn establishment and development.
In this ‘Diary of an oilseed rape grower', Rob will be providing regular updates on how each of the oilseed rape crops is progressing and how they are being managed throughout the year to sale.
See here for the first instalment