October 2011 Archives

On the whole, crop establishment in North Yorkshire has been very good. Rainfall for September was 43mm and October is 64mm leading to near ideal growing conditions with only one frost.

However, as the year draws to a close, we are still 250mm of rain short of our long-term average and with the long range forecast predicting a dry winter this could provide some interesting challenges for 2012.

At long last soil temperatures are falling and the opportunity to apply residual graminicides is here. Heavy soils with grassweed burdens must be the priority and, although not ideal, this will often be tank mixed with a fungicide. Broad leaf weed problems in oilseed rape are much more difficult to deal with as the options available are very limited. Bifenox will be applied where suitable and, coupled with some helpful weather can, solve some brassica issues.

Oilseed rape crops are romping through the growth stages with some very large canopies present. The warm conditions are suiting the crop rather too well. Even so, I was rather surprised to find DK Cabernet, drilled at the end of the second week in September, already over 30cm tall.

The dry conditions have slowed the spread of phoma significantly. South of Oxford, the disease has now come into the crop and I have applied a fungicide/aphicide mix. But further north, phoma is still absent and I am holding off for the time being. 

Unfortunately, the dry conditions have conspired against decent pre-emergence weed control in cereals. All sorts of problems are evident, some crops have a carpet of blackgrass in them and swathes of volunteer rape, which indicates just how little activity the herbicides have given.

With much of the southwest wheat crop due to be planted after maize, a late maize harvest inevitably means that the following wheat is going to be late-drilled. The more favourable maize sites have only been marginally later to harvest this year than normal. But in the more marginal areas, maize crops are weeks later than last year and at worst will never make it to the target dry matter levels at all.

Second and continuous maize crops have been severely affected by maize eyespot this year. I believe that in future maize growers are going to have to factor in a fungicide application as standard practice to control this potentially devastating disease if they are intending to grow a second or continuous maize crop on a marginal site.

Oilseed rape crops range from being well established with a very high green area index (GAI) to crops that are going to need a lot of monitoring and looking after if they are going to make it through the winter. The delayed wheat harvest has meant that a lot of rape was not planted until mid-September or even early October in some cases.

Most, if not all crops, have now been harvested with some huge yields reported. Quality is variable with the main challenge ahead probably marketing and moving the crop.

I am hearing reports of some store breakdown, particularly where harvest into store continued during the very hot and dry weather in September. The first ground frost of the autumn on 20 October resulted in tuber temperatures dropping 3-4C almost overnight.

This resulted in a massive increase in bruising levels in a number of varieties. Therefore, if you have not already sampled your stores for quality I suggest you do so, paying particular attention to the areas of store that were loaded around that date.

A lack of rainfall is continuing to cause problems, especially for later drilled and second wheats. Earlier drilled cereals have generally established well and are at early tillering stages. Dry seed-beds have resulted in variable performance from residual herbicides and in some places SU grassweed herbicide treatments have already been made. 

If conditions remain relatively mild there may yet be more Atlantis/Horus/GF-2070 applied this autumn. In some cases a non-SU 'holding' treatment is being used to increase control of emerging grass weeds with a view to tidying up in the spring with SU chemistry.

There are a lot of patchy wheat crops about and I suspect some that will never produce a fully established crop. Likewise weed emergence is also patchy making herbicide decisions difficult. In these situations it has been a case of protecting the emerged crop against aphids - if they have not been treated with Deter - and applying some manganese. Where volunteer beans have come through, these have also been dealt with.  

The dry weather continues. At the time of writing large parts of my area have received less than 25mm of rain this autumn. As such the seedbeds are still relatively open, and the residual herbicides used to date are unlikely to have created as good a chemical seal as last year.

That said, you can see blackgrass being affected by the residuals. The fact the blackgrass emergence has been delayed, combined with earlier drilling and fewer stale seedbeds could result in a challenging year on some farms.  

To help control the annual grass weeds this autumn, I am eager to use a contact chemical such as iodosulfuron-methyl-sodium or pyroxsulam. Both these products will need to be applied with a residual partner.

After an awful summer we moved into a very dry and unusually warm autumn drilling season. Consequently the winter crops went in to very good conditions and many growers have finished earlier than expected. There are a few winter beans to go in but generally speaking everybody seems to be wrapped up. Most emerged crops look very well but some later-drilled crops on heavy ground are still struggling for moisture.

Pre-emergence herbicides went on in less than ideal conditions, with varying results. A few millimetres of rain a few days ago appears to have reactivated them, so in most cases I'm not rushing in with post-emergence follow-ups just yet.

Winter rape, after a slow start, took off with vengeance in response to the warm weather. Now all crops look very healthy, some would argue too healthy, but this is a problem I actually like. I've seen very little phoma and with some crops up to welly-boot level I think the risk is minimal this year.

The vast majority of oilseed rape and cereals crops look really well. The exception has been patchy emergence of cereals on the heavier land but these areas are now beginning to fill in.

In wheat attention now turns to using Atlantis (mesosulfuron-methyl and iodosulfuron-methyl) plus a residual partner when the blackgrass has 1-3 leaves. This timing is proving to be tricky where crop emergence has been patchy as some parts of the field are ready to apply Atlantis now and in other areas the crop has only just emerged. 

In fields where sterile brome is a problem it would be best to apply herbicides such as Broadway Star (pyroxsulam + florasulam) in the autumn rather than spring to gain best control. In terms of broad-leaved weed control oilseed rape volunteers have grown quite large due to the warm weather and volunteer bean populations are high due to problems harvesting due to low pod set. These will be controlled with more contact-acting herbicides.  

Once again rainfall across the region has been very variable, with some areas receiving heavy showers but most still being excessively dry for the time of year. In many later-drilled wheat crops germination is patchy, with seed sitting in dry soil. On the plus side, so far there is no sign of blue mould on the seed and all we need is a few millimetres of rain to boost establishment. 

Soil conditions are challenging for pre-emergence herbicides, especially on the earlier drillings, with blackgrass reaching the three-leaf stage apparently unharmed. It means that follow-up, post-emergence treatments will be applied earlier than usual and we shall have to hope that all blackgrass has emerged by then.

If pre-emergence treatments are having little effect on the weeds, it makes it even more important to carry out the post-emergence follow-up in the autumn, rather than waiting until spring, when the blackgrass will be enormous.

Things have changed little since my input last month - the dry weather has continued except a few millimetres of rain a couple of weeks ago.

Early-drilled crops with roots in moisture are growing well, albeit rather slowly, but later cereal crops drilled in the first week of October are standing still and starting to struggle. Rain is forecast for this week and this should restart crop growth before any frosts come.

In the majority of cases, autumn residuals have worked remarkably well despite the dry weather. However, there are some instances where large numbers of blackgrass plants have appeared in the treated fields and will certainly need another mid-season herbicide treatment.

Drilling has carried on apace in the four weeks since my last entry.  Concern is now mounting over dry seed-beds which are bound to hinder pre-emergence herbicide activity.  Almost incessant wind has made spraying difficult and the strong aroma of certain materials (yellow peril) means extra vigilance is required.

Any dry cloddy patches are slow to emerge although thankfully slug levels have been low - so far! One bonus has been some of the best conditions for years for maize harvesting and subsequent crop establishment.

The other obvious yellow peril is flowering charlock in winter oilseed rape.  We will consider an early dose of bifenox (SOLA) where the crop is well advanced.  Last year best frost kill was seen on pre-treated weeds.

Fine sowing conditions for many in the North West, with plenty of moisture for good establishment, has seen most farmers finish sowing and some are sprayed-up already.

Most of Cheshire has never stopped and most of the drilling that's left is after maize and potatoes. Further north, the picture isn't so rosy. Growers in Lancashire who were delayed with harvest are suffering the knock-on effect of delayed sowing, as it's been too wet in the last fortnight and more rain is coming now.

The hidden menace for most is insect pests - cabbage root fly on OSR and aphids carrying BYDV on cereals.

Better harvesting weather recently (light rain rather than torrential) has enabled better progress to be made with the potato harvest north of the border.

Overall there is estimated to be about 25% of the crop still in the ground. Most growers have left heaviest land till last and 5 acres a day per harvester has been the norm. But conditions have meant bruising has not been a problem, unlike English crops. 

Slow store filling means getting the cold store doors shut and temperature pulled down are the priority for quality. Tuber temperatures going into store have not fallen below 10C, which means curing should have been completed within 7-10 days of lifting.

This has to be the fastest growing autumn I've seen for quite a while both in plant growth and speed of drilling. Land after sugar beet has been ploughed, drilled and up in 10 days.

The rain 10-14 days ago has really helped everything, particularly the patchy emerged crops in this area. Seed-beds are the best seen since the early drillings, so we are hopeful that this good start to the year will continue.

However, the speed of growth has brought some problems, in that certain crops are carrying some high levels of disease. For the first time in many years I am having to control mildew in some varieties of barley along with some alarming manganese deficiencies.

Extremely dry conditions within a 15-20-mile radius of Shrewsbury means I still have oilseed rape fields with very little crop emergence, if any, and wheat fields after rape with only partial emergence. Any ground that has been ploughed and drilled, mainly ahead of second wheat, is also struggling to emerge. 

I would guess that this predicament is affecting approximately half my combinable area to a greater or lesser degree. The land starts to get more arid the further west I come from Cannock/west of the M6, and by the time I get to Telford the impact of the dry conditions start to kick in.

South Shropshire has had reasonable amounts of rainfall, as has the north of the county. But rainfall over the past six weeks in-between probably amounts to 10-15 mm, on top of a very dry summer. At least an inch of rain is needed to get crops chitting/emerging.

Recent rain has evened up cereal establishment and oilseed rape growth. Where cereal drilling was stalled due to dry and hard soil conditions, the moisture has finally allowed cultivation of reasonable seed-beds.

Moist, friable seed beds are ideal for the activity of most pre- or early post-emergence herbicides. If any of these sprays have been delayed they should be applied swiftly before grass weeds emerge. In these conditions recently sown crops are likely to emerge quickly, however, they should be monitored carefully for slug damage until full establishment.

Cereals that have not been treated with an insecticidal seed dressing, such as Deter (clothianidin), should be protected from aphids and consequential BYDV infection using a foliar insecticide.

There are still areas of crop to cut in the later and more northern regions. Many fields have got straw lying in the bout; farmers fortunate enough to have made bales cannot move them due to the fragile state of the ground. Deep ruts caused by combines, grain trailers and balers abound. All this will have quite an impact on those growers trying to establish second wheats and on farms where continuous wheat has become the norm.

Insects are the big watch out for us here at the moment. Aphid numbers on cereals and oilseed rape are the highest for many years and we're finding the first gout fly eggs on wheat. Leaf miner is making its presence felt in many oilseed rape crops. There's more than enough cabbage stem flea beetle damage too, while little black turnip sawfly caterpillars we first encountered four years ago are proliferating.

This is hardly surprising given one of the warmest Septembers in the past 100 years, let alone the early October heat wave. With the exception of aphids, these insects rarely present a major threat on their own. But the combinations we're seeing this season can be very damaging.

We're gearing-up to nip problems in the bud wherever necessary with a timely insecticide spray, especially in oilseed rape which is all too easy to ignore between early weed control and traditional phoma spray timing given competing autumn demands.