Ensure the best possible start for your OSR with a Nitro-Jet

A wet harvest means a late harvest and therefore late drilling, giving the Oil-Seed Rape a shorter period of time for the plant to achieve enough strength and size to get through the winter months, and furthermore a cold, wet autumn means even fewer growing days before winter. One answer to help these problems is to apply fertiliser at seeding to give the plant a quicker start and allow it to grow more vigorously in a shorter time span. But to do this as a separate operation after drilling takes more time and money. Till-Feeding with OPICO’s new Nitro-Jet gives you all this and more.

Till-Feeding for better establishment

Many farms are already Till-Seeding their Oil-Seed Rape in rows using a subsoiler or cultivator. As well as reducing costs and allowing a faster turnaround, Till-Seeding also conserves moisture in the soil and reduces traffic on the land; improving soil structure; allowing better plant growth and resulting in stronger plants and better yields. However, broadcasting the fertiliser across the full width on band sown Oil-Seed Rape is very wasteful especially in the autumn when the rape plants are small and cannot scavenge very far for nutrients. The fertiliser needs to be applied in bands or rows where the plants are, decreasing usage and leaching but increasing effectiveness by applying the fertiliser where the plant can use it before the winter. This may mean that the overall rate applied can be reduced or if NVZ regulations have been the limiting factor the rate can be maintained but as the fertiliser is being applied in a concentrated band it is the equivalent to three times the application rate across the full width. As the "Monthly nutrient content of winter Oil-Seed Rape" graph below shows there is a significant requirement for not only Nitrogen but also Phosphate and Boron in the autumn. There are environmental factors such as wet, drought and cold which cannot be controlled but if we can ensure that nutrients that we are in control of are supplied in the right place at the right time then the crop has the best start possible. The Nitro-Jet range of fertiliser applicators has been designed to operate in tandem with low cost rape establishment on subsoilers and other cultivators giving the crops a timely nutritional boost for the critical pre-winter growing period.

OPICO OSR Fertiliser Trials

After initial trials which showed a significant benefit to the crop, OPICO began a trials programme all over the UK in conjunction with Masstock and other agronomy companies. These looked at the autumn response to different levels of targeted fertiliser and ultimately yield benefits that can be achieved as a result. Whilst it is early days to scientifically say that there is a specific yield benefit the early results and common sense dictates that stronger well established crops are more likely to survive the winter and produce a higher yield. The fact that many late drilled crops throughout the country failed in the cold, wet autumns of 2007 and 2008 shows the importance of giving the crop the boost it needs at drilling as an insurance policy if nothing else.

Monthly nutrient content of Winter OSR

“The level of crop production can be no greater than that allowed by the most limiting of the essential growth factors” Justus von Liebig 1803 - 1873

NVZ's

With further expansion of NVZ's (Nitrate Vulnerable Zones) tightening the regulations on the amount of autumn fertiliser used, this means that most arable farms will be limited to 30kg/ha on a Rape crop with it having to be applied before the 30th of October.

click here for more information on NVZ's

Liquid - Integrated Fertiliser Applicator
HE-VA Subsoiler Nitro-Jet Integrated Liquid Fertiliser Applicator for Oil-Seed Rape. Two models designed to be mounted on to the Rigid and hydraulic folding HE-VA Subsoilers.
Liquid - Skid Unit Applicator
Skid Unit Nitro-Jet Skid Unit Liquid Fertiliser Applicator for Oil-Seed Rape. Designed to be easily mounted on to any cultivator and various other different types of machines.
Liquid - Front Mounted Fertiliser Applicator
Front Mounted Nitro-Jet Front Mounted Liquid Fertiliser Applicators for Oil-Seed Rape Designed to fit onto the front linkage of a tractor, supplied with pipe work to run to the cultivator on the rear of the tractor.
Soild  - Ferticast Applicator
Ferticast Granular Fertiliser Applicators for Oil-Seed Rape. Designed to be easily mounted on to any cultivator and various other different types of machines.