Castille - Conventional Winter Oilseed Rape

Key Benefits

• A unique combination of highest yield and low boimas benefits
• Good resistance to stem canker eases crop management
• Low boimass limits lodging and allows direct cutting to reduce harvest costs
• Good autumn vigor ensures reliable establishment

Yield

• Castille is a high yielding variety in HGCA RL trials
• Castille provides reliable and consistent yields in trial and on farm

Source: HGCA Recommended list 2006
Mean of treated controls; Fortis, Recital, Disco and Winner

Source: The Arable Group trials 2005

Vigour

• Castille has good early vigour
• Good early vigour promotes reliable establishment and rapid ground cover
• Castilles' reliable establishment gives better rooting to tolerate stressful conditions

Monsanto trial data Autumn 2003 (4 UK sites)

Disease Resistance

• Castille has excellent disease resistance to stem canker which is increasingly important with tighter oilseed rotations

Source: HGCA National List 2006
Mean of treated controls; Fortis, Recital, Disco and Winner

Agronomy

• Castille is a low biomass type
• Excellent lodging resistance
• Short straw habit
• Mid - early flowering and medium-early maturity

Source: HGCA National List 2006
Mean of treated controls; Fortis, Recital, Disco and Winner

Low biomass OSR means lower fuel bills


Cut swathing costs
Cuts drying costs... or eleminates the need for drying altogether
Faster to harvest
Easier to harvest
Less straw to chop



Get the most from the oilseed rape - Drill by target seed number not by weight

The benefits Establishing an optimal plant population is critical to maximise yield and reduce lodging risk
An optimal plant population maximises the return from seasonal inputs such as fertilizer, PGRs and fungicides
Drilling at the correct seed rate to achieve an optimal plant population can reduce your spend on seed



Drilling Rates

Remember - the thousand seed weight (TSW) of oilseed rape varieties can vary dramatically
Aim for an even spring population of 50-60 plants per m2
Target seed rate depends on expected establishment and winter losses
Seedbed quality, previous cropping and agronomic factors need to be considered with the aid of local knowledge and experience

All information is a partial extraction from the Monsanto website and also the HGCA Recommended List 2007/8. See www.monsanto-ag.co.uk and also www.hgca.com for the full dataset