July 2009 Archives

At long last we're reaching the end of a very difficult year for agronomists.

Two wet seasons coupled with a near normal winter have left harvest prospects in the balance. As temperatures rise over 25C crops with tiny root balls and limited crop cover are becoming stressed.

Winter wheats on the whole look quite good and have made the most of what rain and sun we've had. Yellow rust in Oakley has been a problem and will inevitably affect variety choice for next year.

Looking forward the main worry without doubt is weed control. Any farm that has relied on sulfonylurea chemistry over the past three to four seasons must seriously review rotation, cultivation and control programmes.

Hot weather has brought harvest ever nearer, with winter barleys quickly turning gold. Unfortunately, feed barley harvest prices are anything but golden. Pre-harvest glyphosate is being applied to even up crops where necessary or where there is a lot of volunteer wheat.

The decision to desiccate or swath oilseed rape is upon us, as few crops are even enough to consider natural ripening. Crops are much shorter this year, which will make desiccation more appealing. But, whichever option is chosen, timing will be difficult given such uneven crops.

It may be possible to split timings within a field if the differences are in clearly defined areas. But where the crop is generally uneven it will be a case of working to an overall average.

The recent dry weather and high temperatures have stressed poorly rooted crops and hastened take-all's appearance, which is easily seen in many second and third wheats.

I think farmers and agronomists alike will be glad when harvest is complete and we can start afresh next season.

The recent hot, dry spell has highlighted different soil types and areas of compaction, as crops have started to burn up in patches. Subsoilers are at the ready to carry out remedial work.

The dry spring resulted in relatively low septoria pressure this year, with only small differences visible between various treatments in fungicide trials. We await results to assess the economics of programmes this season to see whether any treatments stand out.

A recent visit to TEAGASC in Ireland with a group of farmers was an eye opener, with the disease having defoliated untreated plots. Given the very high septoria pressure, their fungicides are under extreme pressure, the results providing useful pointers for us.

Most oilseed rape crops have been sprayed off with Roundup Ultimate (glyphosate), and those which are very uneven will be sprayed next week with Quad (diquat) when 90% of the seed in the middle third of the raceme is brown.

Timing will be critical to make sure that the later maturing seed is at the correct stage and that there is no loss from the early maturing pods.

Winter wheats are at the cheesy ripe stage (GS80) and some second crops are showing signs of take-all, accentuated by the dry, hot weather. Sartorial lesions are now obvious where treatments were not correctly timed, but it is too late to make economic applications.

Winter barleys are maturing fast and will be harvested in the next week.The light chalky soils are desperately dry and rain will be most welcome for grain-filling, albeit too late for winter barley and perhaps spring barley.

Oilseed rape crops on light land are rapidly approaching the correct stage for glyphosate application. Those on better bodied soils are hanging on and will probably be at the right stage for desiccation in five to seven days time depending on the whether.

I try and go as late as I can as we've found this keeps the oil content up.

While examining crops it's been evident that there is very little sclerotinia infection. I'm looking out for signs verticillium wilt which looks like being the next big disease problem to hit the crop.

There is very little damage from seed weevil or bladder pod midge, which makes it very gratifying that the right decision was made not to include an insecticide with the mid-flowering spray.