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A familiar sight across the Essex countryside are the fields of blue borage.
The drop in the price of oilseed rape has brought borage into fashion as a good choice for a break crop for farmers who harvest it for its seed.
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DEFRA figures show in 2024, UK oilseed rape production saw a significant decline, dropping by 32% to 824 thousand tonnes, driven by a decrease in both area and yield, reaching the lowest level since 1983.
Part of this change to farming practices has been driven by the UK government’s implementation of a full ban on the use of neonicotinoid seed treatments making the cabbage stem flea beetle harder to control on brassica crops like oilseed rape.
The borage seeds are crushed and the oil extracted and used in pharmaceuticals, baby foods and cosmetics as farmer, Hugh Pegrum explains to Ken Crowther.
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