Given the recent hot and dry conditions bets are being placed as to when winter barley harvest will start. Crops on lighter ground are 'going off' fast. Wheat on drought prone land is also showing signs of moisture stress and is not a pretty site.
In wheat, diseases continue to be conspicuous by there absence. In fungicide trials untreated plots of susceptible varieties are starting to show yellow rust.
Given the low disease levels and the need to manage costs, some feed wheats have not received a T3 fungicide. We will watch theses crops with interest, and time will tell if this has been the right decision.
There appears to be a renewed debate on the use of late foliar nitrogen on milling wheats. While some millers are not keen on it, I fear that in higher yield situations we will not hit protein without it. Some clarity and common sense is required. In the meantime, care is required when applying late foliar nitrogen to avoid scorching stressed crops.
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Combing peas have received their second fungicide, which included an aphicide plus pyrethroid for pea moth. A second dose of manganese was included for the prevention of marsh spot. Spring beans have, or will be having, their second fungicide, which will include an insecticide for bruchid beetle if required. Vining peas are being monitored for pea midge.
Orange blossom midge did not materialise, even so, there were some prophylactic treatments applied in this area. Pheromone traps were catching large numbers of male midge, but this should not to be used as a threshold to spray, as they are not an indication of what is happening in the crop. They just show that the midge have emerged. It was an interesting result as the yellow sticky traps caught very few female midge. Hopefully HGCA will fund some more research on the use of pheromone traps.
Blackgrass strategies for the season are under review. I think it is a useful exercise to have blackgrass seed tested for resistance, as once again it is a guide to what is happening in field. Not all poor control may be put down to resistance - a lot may be due to areas of poor crop growth due to waterlogging caused by compaction or poor nutrient status of the soil.
England 2, Germany 2, it should have been. Rain in June, we should have had. Neither of the two events happened and that means England come back and wait for another four years. We shall have to wait for one year and hopefully rains will come at the right time next year. The light chalky soils in Hampshire and Wiltshire have suffered badly from lack of water over the last three to four weeks and I fear that it is going to be only an average harvest.
All cereal crops are at grain filling stage (GS69 +). With the current hot weather, there is serious a risk of brown rust on the susceptible varieties of wheat and spring barley. Carefully monitor fields where the T3 fungicide was missed or a less than robust rate was used at the T2 timing. Infections of brown rust even at this late stage can lead to a yield reduction of up to 25%.
Weed control, especially grassweed control has been difficult this year due to the cold weather early in the season and then exceptionally dry weather since April. Herbicides need growing conditions to work effectively. However it is also possible that resistance to the grassweed herbicide is an issue.
At long last rain has arrived, although amounts vary depending on where you live in the country. As a consequence all crops have improved; even the much maligned winter barleys have nudged themselves over my Wellington boot tops.
The price of fertiliser has been released and as predicted starts in the £200 plus area. The Urea price looks very attractive and starts the debate on how effective is the product. For my ten pence worth, from looking at the data on medium to heavy clay loams urea is as good as ammonium nitrate. Outside of these soil types there may be some issues.
Orange blossom midge has come and gone and wheats are well into flowering. Up to 10 days ago there was little or no disease about and my spray programmes looked like a complete waste of money. But the change to more unsettled weather has let the genie out of the bottle, as yellow rust and septoria strike back.
If ever there was any doubt that the east/west divide still existed, then I am sure regarding climatic conditions, it does. In early June I emptied over two inches of rainfall from my rain gauge, with less than half an inch falling in parts of the Vale of York and further west into Cheshire and Lancashire.
Overnight, temperatures have also been hugely variable with parts of the Yorkshire Wolds down to 3C about ten days ago. This is obviously having an effect on canopy development and a number of crops that I look at will not have reached full canopy cover by the longest day. This year, more than any other, yield and quality really will be influenced by the weather we get between now and harvest.
I am continuing to monitor seed crops closely for aphids. As yet the PCL-funded water trap, for which I am responsible, has produced very little, although I am aware that Peach Potato aphids have been found in other traps. I still recommend a seven day spray programme based around Lambda-cyhalothrin products, however I am fully prepared to add something more robust once colonisers are found.
Wheat T3 started 2 weeks ago and was completed by the end of last week, with all varieties flowering. Grafton was the earliest and was flowering by Friday 11th June, this variety looks very well and just hope it yields well so that we can increase the acreage going in after winter oilseed rape.
All wheat is showing little sign of septoria moving much above leaf four at the moment, and as ever no sign of yellow or brown rust at the moment.
Winter rape is as green as grass at the moment and can not see us being able to start dessication for at least two weeks. i will use glyphosate rather than diquat. ES Cubic is starting to turn and will be the 1st to desiccate.
Most spraying programmes have now been completed and short of some unusual problems, the gate is shut until harvest.
There are, however, a few exceptions. Spring peas have not had a fungicide yet since the weather has been unusually dry. I have also seen some pea aphids at a very low level so vigilance will be required over the coming days.
Spring beans have still not had a second fungicide targeted at rust. It is worth noting that Bravo no longer has a recommendation for use on beans, so unless you have stocks of the old formulation with the old MAPP number on the can, this is no longer an option.
Black bean aphid has not put in an appearance yet but again this pest could still be a problem although any recent treatments aimed at bruchid beetle should prevent problems arising.
Apart from some of the later-drilled cereals, most spraying work is up to date. The decision whether to T3 or not was largely dictated by the amounts of rain that people had as the crop was about to flower.
Orange blossom midge in this part of the world did not feature highly on many farms, particularly as all is feed wheat here and the conditions were not favourable. The wind has been a constant factor for several weeks now. That, coupled with the extreme dry and the odd very hot day has certainly hastened some winter barleys ripening/ senescing on the lighter soils.
Talking about the later crops, especially some of those behind beet, it is clear to see that in hindsight some of these should not have been drilled, as the dryness coupled with some very ordinary seedbeds has prevented decent rooting, which in turn, has affected the uptake of nitrogen. We are left with plants that need to send up a head to the detriment of tillering, some very thin crops.
Further east, showers have tended to be lighter and more sporadic with some areas receiving less than 10mm during the first half of June and nothing during May and April. However, in all areas the recent rain has been very welcome, falling at a crucial time for yield building.
Just before the rain, dry conditions during April and May had begun to highlight "hot spots" on the lighter land and areas of poor soil structure which will need careful attention this autumn. Most wheat crops have escaped orange blossom midge infestation this season.
However, wet, warm conditions during flowering will have provided good conditions for fusarium infection and late septoria infection. Therefore, on most crops an ear spray should have provided a sound investment this season.
Crops are now where you would expect them to be, despite being behind most of the season. Winter barley is fully flowered and ripening, winter wheat ears are out, spring barley has awns appearing and oilseed rape is at full pod emergence. Oilseed rape is looking really well this season due mainly to good establishment.
As crops start to finish there is still low disease pressure and some growers are questioning validity of a final fungicide but the investment has been made in the crop to this stage and every bit of green leaf needs to be retained as long as possible to maximise yield and quality so I think it will still be worthwhile last year was a low disease pressure year and a full fungicide programme still gave reward.
In winter wheat I see the T3 spray as not only for grain quality protection but also a top up of flag leaf fungicide to maintain green leaf area we will therefore be using a prothioconazole or tebuconazole triazole in conjunction with a strobilurin to finish these crops off as Yellow Rust is still at the back of my mind and hopefully this will allow maximum grain fill.
We are coming to the end of what has been an interesting season to say the least. Winter cereals established in ideal conditions last autumn, followed by three months of rain that only relented when it was replaced by thick snow. Then we had two months of virtually no rain and temperatures dipping down to -12C in mid May, with an almost constant northerly wind.
Consequently, winter crops were very late in moving away in the spring and in our area, but disease levels were virtually nonexistent. The problem was that we were constantly being promised rain round the corner that never actually arrived so making decisions on fungicide use was very difficult. The final result has been that I have never used fewer plant growth regulators and mildewicides and I could possibly have got away with using even less than I did. But the rain finally did arrive and gave me confidence that the lightweight earwash I recommended was justified.
The late rain may just have come in time to save some wheat crops. It has certainly made them look better. It has also allowed the spring crops to fill in but will lead to some linseed and spring bean crops having two different growth stages.
Rain arrived in the southwest in the nick of time. Crops were just beginning to look drought-stressed when we had about half an inch of rain on 1 June. This was enough to refresh most crops prior to a heavier dump of rain a week or so later. The dry weather through May has meant that crops have stayed free of disease, although there is more septoria present in those crops that received a delayed T1 application.
The recent showery weather will mean that a T3 application is going to be more likely than it was a week or two ago. For those growing wheat after maize in this part of the world it should be born in mind that passing the self assessment for mycotoxins is almost impossible without a T3 fungicide if we get anything approaching normal rainfall over the flowering period and prior to harvest.
With this in mind a fusarium active triazole is going to be the product of choice at T3. Prospects for the harvest look variable with some crops looking very short and light on tiller numbers, usually as a result of delayed nitrogen applications earlier in the season.
The weather has been relatively kind to the potato crop since the last time of writing, which has allowed later plantings to go into good soil conditions.
Weed problems looked as if they were going to be difficult with the dry ridges, although recent showers combined with robust residual herbicide programmes have resulted in good control, particularly where more than one residual herbicide has been used.
Many crops are now emerging. In fact crops from under fleece were up to 30-35mm in size and scab free. Root growth has been encouraging and to date there has not been too much impediment, although the next spell of weather will determine how well these develop.
The weather has now turned milder which will help with fertiliser uptake particularly P for tuber development. Some early planted seed crops may still see foliar P being applied although the benefit from this is very variable.
Many wheat crops have had the good fortune of having sufficient moisture at critical times during their spring growth and are looking promising - although very few are thick enough. Disease pressure has remained low with fungicide spray timings and weather conditions being favourable wheat crops have four to five disease free leaves.
Only mildew can be found at low levels on stems of some varieties, especially Solstice. Growth regulation has been difficult this season with crops being very short in height early in the spring and missing one growth regulator, have now started to grow at a rapid rate in early summer. Time will tell if this will lead to lodging nearer to harvest.
T3 is now being applied with low rate strobe and triazole mixtures being popular. Grassweed control has been variable with few products achieving high levels of control on difficult blackgrass populations.
Over the last three years mycotoxin-forming ear diseases have been dominated by Fusarium graminearum and Fusarium culmorum. Monitoring by Fera this year is showing that both species are being found on upper leaves and therefore increasing the risk of these diseases reaching the ear.
F.culmorum tends to develop during the spring on wheat plants on the stem base and leaves - early plant infection correlates with later ear infection. F.graminearum can arrive rapidly at ear emergence as it is more easily wind dispersed. T3 fungicides on quality wheats will therefore be targeting these diseases with product choice being based on co-formulations of prothioconazole and tebuconazole.
Both triazoles are very active on Fusarium species with prothioconazole offering greater persistence. Flowering is the main risk period for infection with wet weather increasing the risk so treatments need to be applied at full ear emergence to cover the flowering period. Otherwise foliar diseases are generally low although recent rainfall - some of which has been intense - will encourage late septoria development. If conditions remain cooler then yellow rust could also appear so varieties with a yellow rust weakness may also be targeted for a top-up fungicide at T3.
Wheat crops are generally looking very good and forward crops have ears beginning to appear. Many crops are shorter than normal but the recent cooler wet weather will add growth to the canopy.
Disease levels are low due to the cool spring and relatively short interval between T1 and T2. My options for T3 in responsive situations will be based around prothioconazole and chlorothalonil either as Proline + Amistar Opti or Firefly + Chlorothalonil. Remember new label Bravo is limited to two applications and total chlorothalonil must not exceed 2000g/ha.
Winter barley especially six row varieties are vigorous and up to normal canopy size. The Bontima treated crops are extremely clean and it will be interesting to see how they perform at harvest.
The majority of winter wheat is at or close to ear emergence stage so it is time to consider T3 fungicides. Treatment at this stage tops-up disease control on the flag leaf and keeps the developing ear clean, increasing yield and protecting grain quality.
Mycotoxin reduction, particularly on milling wheat, is now a priority at T3. In addition there is still a risk from yellow rust and in the hot dry conditions of late, brown rust is a particular risk on susceptible varieties. While the dry weather reduces the threat from septoria and late ear diseases we do not know what conditions will develop over the coming six weeks, so T3 treatments should be applied.
As the ear emerges and up to flowering we also need to be checking on calm evenings for wheat orange blossom midge. Only spray if the threshold figure is reached as chlorpyrifos is a very broad spectrum insecticide and will kill a wide range of non-target species.
Winter cereals on medium to heavy land have held up well during a very dry May. However, crops on lighter land have begun to suffer from drought with all spring crops ready for some rain.
In winter wheat the weather has allowed T2 fungicides to be applied at the correct time. It must be a good few years since the weather has allowed all T0, T1 and T2 fungicides to be all applied as planned. As a result, crops are very clean, but yellow rust has established in Oakley where there has been a spray miss e.g. near a telegraph pole, showing the effectiveness of the fungicides. Watch out for some mildew creeping in on late sown crops suffering from drought stress.
