After nearly four weeks with no worthwhile rain, soils are very dry. This is ideal for subsoiling to repair the damage done in the past three wet harvests, but it is also bringing some problems.
There is little sign of weeds or volunteers in stale seed-beds so the choice is to wait for rain to produce some growth or to carry on drilling and try to tackle the problems later.
Most growers are opting for the latter course, but it will result in a heavier burden of weed and volunteer cereals in the next crop.
Against that, provided a good seed-bed can be produced, it seems a good idea to keep drilling. Once it starts to rain, it may not stop for some time.
For the same reason, pre-emergence herbicides should still be applied to cereals, despite the dry conditions - they will sit in the soil and will be activated once rain comes.
Application could be left until early post-emergence, but it is not as effective and could be missed if we get into a prolonged period of bad weather.
In winter barley particularly, there are few later post-emergence options for blackgrass and brome control if the pre-emergence treatment is missed. Make sure that seed is well covered.
Forward oilseed rape crops are now at the four-leaf stage, but some have very patchy germination, are struggling for growth and looking stressed.
Nitrogen would help to encourage them but there would be little uptake in the dry soil.
The uneven development is making for difficult decisions on early post-emergence herbicides where we have to wait for fully expanded cotyledons before it is safe to spray.
Slug activity is minimal at present but we shouldn't be lulled into a false sense of security.
Once rain comes, they will be back.
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