Cultivation after harvest

Harvest 2026: Help Shape the Future of Post-Harvest Cultivation

Calling All OSR Growers in the UK

When oilseed rape harvest comes around, this provides the ideal opportunity to put one of the OSR Reboot's 10 Strategies for Managing Cabbage Stem Flea Beetle (CSFB) into practice.

Post-harvest cultivation has moved rapidly up the list of recommended management techniques following encouraging work by Colin Peters and the Niab team. Their research has shown that carrying out a shallow cultivation immediately after harvest can reduce emerging adult CSFB by 50-90% by disrupting the insect during its pupal stage.

As part of the industry-funded CSFB Research+ project, researchers are now looking to better understand how widely the technique is being adopted and how it performs across different farming systems and soil types. The rersults so far are encouraging and somewhat mirror the early research.

Can You Help?

United Oilseeds is encouraging all members growing oilseed rape to complete a tick box as they submit their Crop Ready form this harvest.

Whether you intend to carry out shallow post-harvest cultivation or not, your answers will help build a reliable picture on grower adoption of this important management technique. Every response will contribute towards future research and help strengthen recommendations for UK growers.

Getting the Technique Right

Current guidance is to cultivate as soon as possible after harvest, disturbing the top 3-5cm of soil across the entire field.

The objective is to move 100% of the soil surface, rather than simply turning over strips of soil. Depending on the equipment being used, this may require some adjustment. A simple spade test after cultivation is the best way to check that the whole surface layer has been disturbed.

Whether using a straw rake, shallow discs or other suitable cultivation equipment, the principle remains the same: maximise soil disturbance while keeping cultivation shallow.

Watch the videos below, featuring Colin Peters from Niab, to see the technique demonstrated in the field.

One Industry Working Together

Post-harvest cultivation is one of the OSR Reboot's 10 Strategies for Managing CSFB and forms an important part of the wider integrated approach being promoted by growers, researchers, breeders and industry partners.

By sharing your intentions through the tick box and, where appropriate, adopting the technique this harvest, you'll be helping generate the evidence needed to improve future CSFB management and reduce CSFB numbers for the long-term resilience of UK oilseed rape production.

Watch the latest post harvest cultivation videos:

Video 1 - CSFB & Soil Cultivations – In the field (5 mins)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPM9qwwWV5Y&t=30s

Video 2 - CSFB & Soil Cultivations – In the workshop (3 mins)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgPkWB9pKuk