Crop Rotation
 
Oilseed rape and wheat fit into appropriate rotations for crop health and logistics management in relation to sowing and harvesting dates.
 
Rape varieties such as Executive, Taurus and Artus are well suited for high levels of continuous production.  Relying on a single variety would present risks and a narrower spread of harvest dates and sowing date spread can be managed by thoughtful use of varieties.

Crop Management Challenges

By its very nature oilseed rape presents some challenges compared to other cereals. Of all the arable crops oilseed rape is the most demanding in terms of sowing date, and is subject to more volatile yields compared to cereals.  The tight sowing window for winter rape must be sown by early September in Ukrainian conditions and growers must be careful to establish their planned area having regard to the weather conditions.

Oilseed rape has the advantage that it plays an important role as a break crop for cereal production and when cultivated effectively oilseed rape is a valuable crop in the rotation in its own right. Rapeseed meal and glycerine by-products. There are two principal by-products from the processing of OSR: rapeseed meal from the crushing stage and glycerine from the esterification stage. Rapeseed meal is used by the animal feed manufacturers as a protein supplement for livestock rations although its inclusion rate is limited to due to nutritional factors.

Glycerine is a by-product of biodiesel production and can be used in a wide range of markets with over 1,500 different end uses.  Supply in Europe has significantly increased since the mid 1990s and this has been strongly influenced by an increase in biodiesel production.

Crushing

Rapeseed oil extraction or crushing involves the following steps:

- Removal of foreign matter from the seed
- Tempering or pre-heating the seed to improve ease of oil extraction
- Removal of the seed coat
- Flaking seed to increase surface area for oil extraction
- Conditioning by heating the flaked seed
- Mechanical extraction by pre-pressing and extrusion

Refining

Refining vegetable oil for food involves four processes:

- De-gumming to remove natural phosphorus based gums and pigments
- Neutralisation to remove free fatty acids
- Bleaching to improve oil colour and clarity
- De-odorising to scrub out volatiles which give the oil an unpleasant smell

Esterification

Esterification is conducted by the adding of a monohydric alcohol to the oil in the presence of a catalyst.  The triacylglycerols in the oil are transformed into fatty acid esters and glycerol. The biodiesel may contain traces of soaps and some excess methanol and these are removed by centrifuge for the former and by distillation for the latter. The biodiesel is then ready for use.