Light leaf spot to blame for disappointing OSR yields
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Growers face hefty price cuts and reduced crop areas
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David Jones
Arable editor
Email David
@DavidJonesFW
As usual, I am complaining about the weather. We were too wet last month and now we are too dry, although I did get my soya beans planted before the crop insurance deadline. Full Article
Down here in the South West and particularly in Cornwall, our combinable crops definitely seem to be behind those I have seen in my travels further east. Full Article
Our 2015 cropping plan is being revisited daily and subjected to regular tweaks. The catalyst for our current tweak is the announcement about the 2015-16 sugar beet crop. Full Article
Combines have started rolling – 25 days ahead of last year – and the crop in the field we started in had been in the ground exactly 11 months. Full Article
We have just nibbled into some oilseed rape and are now typically frustrated by drizzle, but counting our lucky stars we didn’t get the 30mm in two hours a colleague in Suffolk has just experienced. Full Article
Planning autumn growth, harvesting and storage.
Advice on how to control slugs without impact on the environment.
The main factors to consider when establishing a crop.
The field gate is almost shut; there is just time to draw breath and review this season and plan for the next before the combines roll. So while I’m leaning on the gate (chewing on the obligatory straw), how would I sum up the season? Well for me it’s been a challenge, but hopefully one […] Full Article
What a season it has been. Heavy disease pressure and well documented shortages of some fungicide active ingredients have contrived to keep us all on our toes! The relative strengths and weaknesses of products have been tested to the limit. Those products that have been claimed by distributors to be “just the same as” the […] Full Article
We’re coming to the end of the season and once again we look back on it and wonder at how strange it has been. It’s been a difficult year for spray operators, but from a disease point of view, where the sprays have gone on in good time the results are there for all to […] Full Article
Despite two or three weeks dry weather septoria has continued to express itself in crops, particularly those where timings have been missed. It has become quite evident as the season has progressed that keeping spray intervals tight has been much more important than catching the desired growth stage spot on. This was particularly so with […] Full Article
Welcome sunshine will hopefully allow crops to fulfil their full potential this year, unlike 2012 when it all went wrong in June because of constant rain. Winter barley is starting to turn and indicates an early harvest. Winter wheat canopies have maintained their green colour until now, with the help of some very robust fungicide programmes. Some wheats […] Full Article