Rape: A crop to keep in mind

Las week, we were reading the Campo magazine (from www.campocyl.es website) when we received its newsletter (it is sent weekly) and we found an interesting article about rape in Castilla y León (it is an area where there are over 26,000 hectares of colza). As we could read in these article, it is an important crop in this​ ​Spanish area and it is interesting to carry out crop rotations. Our friend Alberto (from Turégano) and Espejo (from Chinchón) sent us some pictures as you can see below. Alberto sowed colza this year (it is the first time he cultivates it) and he is going to sow it this campaign again... his production was of 2,130kg/ha. As he told us, colza is a crop which needs water in its first week after sowing (it is sowed in September) to grow up. If it rains in these period the success is almost guaranteed.

The article begins to saying "the profitability that can be obtained with rape is impossible to be got with cereal"). ... It begins really great!!. Rape can produce between 2,000kg and 4,000kg per hectare and its price is about 375€/t besides its costs regarding to cereal are only about 50€/ha more. In irrigated fields, rape yields are similar to corn and their costs are really lower.

We could see in this magazine an interesting summary of profit/cost per hectare according to a farmer from Peleas de Abajo - Zamora (he has sowed 54ha for 6 years). That summary is the following one:

Costs:

• Seeds: 55€
• Sowing tasks: 40€
• Harvesting tasks: 47€
• Ploughing and harrowing tasks: 75€
• Fertilizer tasks: 205€
• Spraying tasks: 140€

Total costs: 562€

Profit (if you have an average production of 2,500kg/ha): 937€

In our area nobody sow rape... we suppose there aren't good conditions for it. Some farmers sowed rape in near Villages but after a few years they changed crop :(... What experiences do you have with this crop? We are waiting your comments!!

Versión en español.