New OSR variety offers early maturity and low biomass without a yield penalty

By Ben Wright

23 November 2011

DK Camelot, one of only three new winter oilseed rape varieties to be added to the HGCA’s Recommended List for the East and West in 2012/13, offers growers a number of key advantages over existing varieties: it delivers a consistently high gross output, but unlike its counterparts at the top of the Recommended List, it is early to mature and has a low biomass plant type – important characteristics that can help growers ease harvest workloads and reduce costs.

DK Camelot is an open pollinated variety from the Monsanto breeding programme with an excellent gross output rating of 106.3% delivered through a good seed yield and outstanding oil content of 46.4%. “DK Camelot has shown a fantastic consistency of performance over years in official trials. This proven reliability is increasingly important given the changeable and unpredictable UK climate over recent years.” explains Beckii Gibbs, seed manager for United Oilseeds.

With an earliness of maturity rating of 6, DK Camelot offers an earlier harvest and in doing so extends the oilseed rape harvest window. “The current trend towards later maturing varieties is pushing the UK’s harvest logistics to bursting point,” says Ms Gibbs.  “DK Camelot is nearly a week earlier to mature than most other open pollinated varieties easing harvest pressures and extending the amount of time available for cultivation prior to the start of wheat harvesting.”

DK Camelot also boasts true low biomass credentials with a shortness of stem rating of 8, the same as the now considerably lower yielding Castille. “This offers a number of distinct advantages throughout the growing season and at harvest,” Ms Gibbs continues.