The colour of our countryside in spring has changed dramatically since the 1970s. In the past 40 years, the patchwork quilt of the British landscape has seen the gradual introduction of fields of bright yellow flowers.
Why are farmers fields yellow?
The yellow flower that fills the spring fields is oilseed rape. It’s a crop that was virtually unheard of before the UK joined the then Common Market in 1973. But a rise in prices and help from European grants suddenly made it an attractive option for British farmers.
In 1980, there were just 9,500 acres of oilseed rape grown in the UK. Today it covers over 1.7
million acres and it remains one of the country’s top arable crops.
In late July, oilseed rape is the first of the arable crops to be harvested but the story begins almost a year before, in August, when we prepare the soil, then drill and roll the seedbed.
Like most farmers, oilseed rape growers are at the mercy of mother nature. Through the autumn and winter we monitor disease levels and control any pest such as slugs, aphids and flea beetles. Pigeons are another headache as their appetite for the shoots can be devastating. But we can foil them as long as we’ve planted in time for a good canopy of rape to grow by the time the birds start flocking in December. If they can’t see the soil, they won’t land and the crop will escape.
The early months of the New Year see fertiliser and essential trace elementsb being applied when and where they’re needed.
Why do farmers grow oilseed rape?
We all know oilseed rape looks striking, but why do farmers grow the stuff? Well, it used to be a convenient ‘break crop’ in field rotation but today it has more uses, one of which is rapeseed oil.
What is rapeseed oil?
Extracted from the flowers’ black seeds, rapeseed oil high in Omega-3 and low in saturated fat so it’s found its way into margarine, mayonnaise and as salad dressings as an rescue of some British farmers, so the alternative to olive oil.
It can be used for biodiesel but oilseed rape has also proved attractive to some of our best-loved birds, too. New varieties of oilseed rape were planted in the late 1980s to make the resulting oil fit for human consumption and, by happy coincidence, it wasn’t long before bird conservationists reported an increase in the number of linnets.
These small members of the finch family, which are often found on farmland, had been in serious decline before they discovered a taste for the seeds.
So just as oilseed rape came to the rescue of some British farmers, so the unsuspecting farmers came to the rescue of the linnet.
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