Oil seed rape, is it profitable

[Dom Tuk]

The fields seem to be full of oil seed rape in the UK. It must be a profitable crop for the British farmers. How much profit does a UK farmer make from say a standard football sized field?

[LazyGun]

1 football pitch is = to about 1 hectare.

Gross profitability margins for oilseed rape in the UK in 2002 was about UK�550/hectare.

[Will666]

Don't want to pis5 on your bonfire but 1 hectare is 1000msquared which is vastly bibber than 1 football pitch. OSR would yeild a maximum of 5ton/hectare and that's only on the most fertile land. Farmers can get anything fron �150/ton to �200/ton. The crop requires a large amount of nitrogen (�120+/ton) plus other nutrients (P, K, and S). It also has a very high pesticide requirement. Due to high fuel costs and labour costs, sowing the crop isn't cheap, nor is harvesting, drying ( needs to be less than 10% moisture), transportation and storage. I can't put a price on want the farmer gets at the end of the day but it isn't as high as you would believe. It is grown in a crop rotation as a break crop (meaning you can use different pesticides than you would with a corn based crop) and helps spread the harvest. OSR is a crop that encourages beneficial insects like the bumble bee. Don't think i've miss too much out, hope it helps.

[LazyGun]

Sounds like you know what you are talking about Will... I was just interested in the question and looked up some references on google, hence the football pitch being equivalent to a hectare reference.

One piece of info was from DEFRA, and suggested that taking into account pesticides etc, the gross profitability was around 550/hectare.

[Will666]

No probs, lets just say my family know about ths sort of thing.
It is the second most profitable crop in britian (behind winter wheat) but DEFRA like people to believe farmers make more money than they really do.

[mightyWBA]

How does it compare to car boot sales?

I went to one Sunday which must have had 500 cars there at �7.00 a time.

Thats �3500 cash in hand for a few hours on a Sunday.

Its got to better than working!

[Ethel]

mighty WBA - good thinking!

You buy a large piece of land, pay rates on it, and the public liability insurance required for allowing car boot sales.

Provide the necessary toilet facilities and fight the local council for the right to hold the sale.

Pay the car parking staff and other attendants, take off the cut the Inland Revenue and National Insurance will most definitely take and lets see if you are laughing quite so much.

[mightyWBA]

Ethel I can assure you the local farmer doesn't bother with any of that.

In fact the field he uses, he gets money off the E.U. NOT to grow anything!