The UK's oilseed rape crop failed spectacularly: Irish farmers are trying to avoid the same happening here
In the UK in 2020, four out of ten fields of oilseed rape did not make it to harvest. However, Irish growers of the crop are forewarned and forearmed.
More Irish farmers are expected to sow oilseed rape this autumn, despite the crop's chequered and controversial history across the EU.
Across the Irish Sea, there was a spectacular failure of the crop in the last decade. In the UK in 2020, four out of ten fields of oilseed rape did not make it to harvest, due to damage by the cabbage stem flea beetle, and 14% of the crop was resown after severe damage by the pest. Yields fell to their lowest level in over a decade.
