Warm autumn days and moist soils have encouraged quick establishment of early September sown wheats and late-sown oilseed rape, although many mid to late September sown oilseed rape crops are still small and vulnerable. Generally cereal seed-beds are good or reasonable, which should, along with moist soil conditions, help maximise the efficacy of pre- and [...]
A fair proportion of winter wheat has been drilled into excellent conditions after a good emergence of grassweeds was sprayed off pre-drilling. The recent showers have generally been welcomed, so long as they don’t go on for too long. A lot of wheat is being followed up with pre-emergence herbicides in different guises which is [...]
Once again the weather is playing a big part in proceedings. Soils are now very wet in some areas after more than 3 inches of rainfall over the last 10-14 days. Seed harvest in Yorkshire seems to be progressing well with acceptable yields and generally good quality. Harvest of main crop into store has only [...]
Rain forecast for early this week should help to encourage growth of young oilseed rape plants on thinner soils where the surface soil had just started to dry out. Some growers are applying a low dose of N while temperatures remain sufficiently high for the plant to make use of it. Once we get into [...]
The rain we’ve had over the past month may not have been ideal for harvesting but it has meant we’re starting the new cropping season with some of the most promising seedbed conditions I’ve had across my patch in recent years. Grass weeds and volunteers have all grown away well following harvest and we’re looking [...]
Crops in Scotland are either burnt down or very close to being burnt down. Desiccation options this year were centred on combinations including pulverisation and chemical application particularly within the seed crops. In ware crops the options for pulverisation were more varied and many crops were being burnt down with split dose diquat which as [...]