CSFB resilient variety sets new record for OSR yield
11th August 2025
Exactly a decade after breaking the world record OSR yield, Lincolnshire farmer Tim Lamyman has defied the exceptionally dry season to bring in a record-breaking crop.
An 8ha field of September-sown LG Avenger delivered an impressive seed yield of 7.52t/ha – breaking the unofficial world record of 7.2t/ha, set in 2019 by Richard Budd.
Of the 85ha of oilseed rape grown at Worlaby Farms in 2024/25, 80% was put down to LG Avenger, sown between the 10th and 20th of September. “All fields looked phenomenal throughout the season, with very little to choose between the sowing dates,” Tim comments.
“It’s the first year I’ve grown LG Avenger and I absolutely love the variety. It has fantastic autumn vigour, which was one of the main reasons for choosing it. We wanted a variety we can sow later to help mitigate flea beetle risk, and one that gets up and away quickly to establish a strong canopy going into the winter.”
Having worked with Limagrain Field Seeds UK and United Oilseeds to develop ways of mitigating cabbage stem flea beetle damage, Mr Lamyman is convinced that sowing a vigorous variety later, ideally after the 5-10th September, is the best way to avoid the worst of CSFB damage.
“Even though flea beetle pressure wasn’t particularly high last autumn, I can see that in a bad year, the vigour of LG Avenger will help get through those issues. If you’re later drilling and you’ve got that vigour, you’ve got a much better chance of getting a crop established than if you’ve drilled it earlier in the season.”
All of Mr Lamyman’s oilseed rape ground is usually prepared using the farm’s Väderstad TopDown and Carrier cultivators, before sowing with a 6m Väderstad Rapid drill. “Because we are drilling later and have a lot of stones in our soil, we prefer a higher seed rate of 4kg/ha; equivalent to around 65 seeds/m2, to make sure we establish a good, thick crop.”
Building on solid foundations
Supporting the vigour of LG Avenger with a comprehensive nutrition programme is essential to building a big biomass crop and high yield potential, Mr Lamyman believes.
“It’s a big, bold plant, which you’re making grow even faster, so it’s all beneficial. We’ve seen in the past that going down the route of shorter, low biomass oilseed rape simply hasn’t worked, so in my view, the bigger the crop, the higher the yield.”
At Worlaby Farms, that nutrition programme centres around a range of products from Bionature UK Ltd, designed to support plant health and soil biology at different stages of the season.
This begins at the 2-4 leaf stage, with an application of Leodita & Delta. Delta is a stabilised NH2 nitrogen foliar application. Leodita is an organic soil improver that supports strong root development, and is faster-acting than the standard DAP and autumn nitrogen approach, Mr Lamyman says.
“Indeed, trials on the farm this year showed that within four days of applying Leodita, there was 40-60% more crop biomass compared with oilseed rape that received DAP. That biomass difference didn’t stop all the way through the autumn.”
“This is followed with foliar feeds in the autumn and spring, including a calcium-based product at flowering, to improve seed set.”
“Growing a fast, vigorous variety like LG Avenger, with this kind of nutrition programme over the top, gives you the ‘shield’ you need to get a late-drilled crop established very quickly in the autumn and probably gives as much biomass as something drilled three weeks earlier.”
Managing the large biomass crop has not been an issue, he adds. “It’s a really well structured variety, which also has the benefit of excellent pod shatter resistance.”
Disease control has also been fairly straightforward, based around a standard programme including tebuconazole, prothioconazole, azoxystrobin and one SDHI fungicide. “It’s nothing very expensive, yet crops have stayed really clean throughout.”
Given the exceptional performance of LG Avenger this season, Mr Lamyman is sowing it again across his entire 90ha of oilseed rape next season; a decision he had already made before crops were harvested, given how well they looked.
LG Avenger
- High-yielding hybrid OSR from Limagrain Field Seeds UK
- First to be commercially available in the UK with LG’s CSFB resilience characteristic
- Exceptional autumn and spring vigour
- ‘Fully loaded’ resistance to Turnip Yellows Virus, pod shatter, and RLM7 phoma
- Very good disease resistance, rated 7 for light leaf spot and sclerotinia tolerance.
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