Spring beans will be receiving a final bruchid spray as they finish flowering. A pyrethroid and half rate pirimicarb will be used as levels of black bean aphids are increasing. This will be our third bruchid spray in some cases due to the protracted season. Disease levels are still low in bean crops so a low [...]
Rain over the past three weeks totalling nearly 75mm and another 45mm in May has saved the day for most crops. Winter wheat at GS80 is now looking fairly good. Both winter and spring barley will benefit from the rain – winter barley will have the benefit of better grain fill and in the case [...]
Bets are now being placed on when harvest will start. Some winter barley crops look quite ’fit’ from the road, but when walked they are still a bit off harvest yet. By the time of writing a few early oilseed rape crops will have been sprayed off. Rainfall in June has seen wheat crops improve. However, I [...]
Rainfall during June has improved many crops, but it may have arrived too late for the winter barley. Oilseed rape and wheats generally look well on the heavier land, but wheat on lighter soils or late drilled after roots will struggle to produce good yields. Many barley crops have obvious levels of secondary growth. Consider applying [...]
At long last the weather has changed and well needed moisture has arrived. Recent head counts on the wheat crops reveal numbers are down 10-15% on average years. It would appear that harvest could be 7-10 days earlier than normal but time will tell. Spraying is near completion on the wheat crops as final ear [...]
Much need rainfall has fallen over many parts of the areas that I cover across the north of England, however amounts have varied considerably. Canopy development has been good, although I am now coming across damage caused by rhizoctonia, free living nematodes and PCN in patches within fields. I firmly believe that if crops can [...]
Since my last blog we in the west have been extremely fortunate in that we have had 10-15mm of rain each week since the 1st dollop arrived. This came just as the flag leaves were emerging and has been enough to allow wheat crops to transform themselves from looking somewhat insipid to dark green. We [...]
As this difficult and challenging season draws to a close perhaps the most difficult decision of the season remains, when do we desiccate some of these oilseed rape crops? If you are one of the lucky ones with even crops and no secondary flowering then the decision will be no harder than normal. Unfortunately, this [...]
At last rain has arrived. It’s been too late for many spring cereal crops in this area, but welcome none the less. Crops have certainly turned a lot greener and lifted themselves off the floor, particularly the wheats. This, in turn, has increased the number of ear sprays being applied and has perhaps increased the [...]
The rain has finally arrived and for the second time this year the countryside has turned green overnight. Whether it is in time enough to save any struggling wheat or barley crops I’m not sure, but it is certainly a welcome sight. It has certainly justified continuing with the T3 fungicide protection programme, as [...]