Spring barley crops have finally perked up now that we’ve had a week’s hot, dry weather.  They were looking very stressed and unhappy, having hadto endure cold weather and rain.  Trace element deficiencies, especially manganese, have been far worse than normal as well.

Generally they are now motoring on well with the most forward crops at GS 30-31.  Broadleaf weed control and first fungicides are all done.  Hopefully now that the soils are starting to dry the cleavers, fat hen, bindweed, etc… will now stop germinating.  I have been surprised by how few wild oats have sprung up so far.  Does this mean we’re going to have another year of very late flushes?

Flag leaf sprays on the wheat are mostly done. It seems odd that a few months ago we were talking about how early the season was.

SDHI’s have been used on most crops, Adexar or Aviator being employed in most places.  Septoria has been the dominant disease to chase.  The T1 sprays have generally held well where they were able to go on at ideal timings. Where they were late due to the weather, the results have been more variable so some flag sprays have had to have a full dose of triazole in the mix rather than the traditional ¾ rate.

Gallant, Cordiale and Oakley still have areas where there is active rust, so where Aviator has been used then either Centaur (cyproconazole) or Tebucur (tebuconazole) has been added to clear that up.  Many crops have also needed some fluroxypyr to clear up cleavers that are ranging from as tall as the crop to just about the first worl.

Oilseed rape is now getting to the end of flowering, which means the sclerotinia threat is now dropping, but if we have a return of wet weather then alternaria could come into play.

Pod set has been very good, so even though the weather during flowering hasn’t been ideal for pollinators, the yield potential is still there. Some crops lodged towards the end of the wet period. Very few have kinked stems, so they can keep feeding flowers and pods well.  Mostly it’s fertiliser overlaps, but there is the odd field that lodged all over. The side branches have lifted and they’ve kept flowering so as it’ll be interesting to see how it effects yield.