United Kingdom
July 2025
- DSV continuing to invest in new breeding developments
- Improved phoma and clubroot protection in varieties
- Powerful Pods technology improves harvestability
While few could ignore the problems many growers have experienced with growing oilseed rape since the neonicotinoid ban, there are still many good reasons to consider giving the crop a place in future rotations, says DSV's Sarah Hawthorne.
The company continues to invest in new varieties and traits to make the crop more resilient with its latest Phoma Blocker, CRE1 enhanced clubroot protection and Powerful Pods developments good examples of this, she points out
"Oilseed rape is a crop many producers have grown up with and understand plus there is still a huge demand for it in the UK and a well-established infrastructure built around its marketing and processing.
"With each year that goes by we're building up knowledge around the issues of establishment in difficult years and this, combined with new varieties, will only increase the crop's viability in the future.
"Don't forget it's a break crop many struggle to find an alternative for, providing growers with a real opportunity to control diseases and pests they otherwise would not be able to and also allowing them to use a different set of herbicides against weed problems."
DSV has put a lot of effort into developing varieties capable of delivering high performance in a range of growing scenarios, with its PNN (post-neonicotinoid) genetics underpinning much of its current oil seed rape portfolio, she points out.
"All our breeding is based on the process of hybridisation as this allows us to develop stronger varieties, more able to thrive in the current challenging conditions, than is possible with conventional breeding."
“Our trials have shown DSV hybrids consistently produce 15% more root mass than conventional varieties and not only does this help anchor plants, it gives them much greater resistance to abiotic stress and leads to higher GAI and improved photosynthetic potential.
"Other potential benefits include better yields, more stable oil contents, a wider range of drilling dates and the opportunity to use reduced seed rates."
New genetic resistances
New genetic resistances to two of the UK's most serious and costly diseases affecting oilseed rape have also been developed recently by DSV, she adds.
"Our Phoma Blocker trait, featuring a resistance mechanism for phoma stem canker completely new to Europe, is already featured in the varieties Cognac and Dompteur and other varieties currently going through the UK testing process with the enhanced clubroot resistance CRE1 now in the variety Cromputer.
"DSV Phoma Blocker adds a much-required additional layer of security for the future by the addition of LepR1 or RlmS to the widely used Rlm7 resistance - a completely new approach for phoma resistance in Europe.
"Whilst LepR1 by itself has been shown to have the best resistance to the most common phoma strains in field trials across Europe, we believe it is most effective when used in conjunction with other disease resistance traits.
"DSV now uniquely has varieties featuring all three different phoma resistance mechanisms - Rlm7, RlmS and now LepR1 - that can be rotated in the field to minimise major breakdown of any one type of resistance.
"In recent years, DSV's clubroot protection has also played an important role in keeping spread of the disease in check and also protecting yields for growers.
"DSV has been particularly successful in this area with varieties such as DSV Crossfit CR and DSV Crocodile CR offering good protection without yields being compromised, which has usually been the case before such varieties were introduced.
"We have now introduced a new clubroot resistance mechanism called CRE1 (Clubroot Resistance Enhanced 1) with a broader protection against more pathotypes.
"CRE1 is a novel trait that has been created by crossing from B. rapa. Laboratory infection studies using various P. brassicae isolates show CRE1 to be an enhanced resistance mechanism compared to the classical 'Mendel' resistance."
Improved harvest performance
New oilseed rape genetics have also been developed by DSV to improve harvest performance by building on traditional pod shatter characteristics, she explains.
"Our latest RL addition DSV Dolphin is the first of a new generation of hybrid varieties specifically developed to combine a key set of genetic traits to protect them against adverse weather conditions later in the season."
"Pod shatter genetics, contained in several DSV oilseed rape varieties and others on the RL, have done much to highlight the issue of harvest seed shed.
"It is, however, now widely understood that how a variety performs during its growth and at harvest is the function of many different characteristics rather than just a single gene or property of a variety.
"Other factors such as the plant's overall strength and health, its disease resistance and growth habit together with the actual physical form of the pod are increasingly seen as fundamental to how it performs at harvest."
With this in mind, DSV breeders have been working on three key pod characteristics around the concept of 'Powerful Pods' which contribute significantly to reduced seed losses in adverse conditions, she explains.
"These are greater flexibility of the pod structure, improved function of the pod valve margins and greater space around individual seeds.
"All of these developments add to the future viability of oilseed rape and allow growers to have greater faith in the crop and its ability to deliver high margins."
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