The sound of the combine harvesters has been heard for much of the day while four of the nearest fields of oil seed rape have been cut.   I like to record the first harvest each year in the field across the road and today it was cut three weeks earlier than the last time that the crop was grown here.
 Unlike cereal straw where the long stalks are made into bales then usually used as cattle fodder or bedding there is little evidence left of the stalks apart from small pieces among the stubble.  The long tap roots and stubble are left for a while as they provide nutrients for the soil and usually wheat yields are better if planted  the following year.    The seeds are used mainly for edible oils and biofuel but have many other uses such as in cosmetics and soap and after extraction the residue can be used for making cattle feed.
 After reading about oilseed rape I have discovered that the buckwheat plant is often planted with it as a sacrificial plant to attract a beetle which would damage emerging oilseed rape seedlings.   I blipped buckwheat with young rape plants in the field last autumn so it was obviously planted as a pest control