November has passed like a scene in the Bill Murray film Groundhog Day with every day being a repeat of the last one, dull, dry and still. This makes your friendly agronomist look a fool as every week he declares “that’s it for the year, put the sprayer away we won’t get any more spray [...]
Rain in early November and some perfect spraying conditions subsequently have resulted in rapid blackgrass emergence in wheats and a considerable amount of Atlantis/Horus (iodosulfuron + mesosulfuron) being applied. Soil moisture has also activated the residuals to the extent that the later sown wheats contain some sick looking blackgrass. There is still some follow up Atlantis/Horus to be applied [...]
A quick glance at the calendar tells me it is December this week, hard to believe after the mild weather we have had recently. Rape crops continue to race away and some are carrying huge canopies going into the winter. Soil temperatures have now declined enough to start applying Kerb (propyzamide) or Crawler (carbetamide) but given the [...]
The unusually mild weather throughout November has been a great help to all the late drilled crops in the area. With a late maize harvest there has been a significant acreage of wheat planted later than usual this year. The vast majority of these crops have taken as little as 12 to 14 days to emerge [...]
All crops generally look very well as the long run of mild weather continues. With very little rain in the past month most autumn spray programmes have now been completed. A lot of Atlantis has been applied to small blackgrass in ideal conditions so hopefully control will be maximised. The main issue affecting cereals at [...]
What happened to the promised October snow! Since my last article we have still not had any significant rainfall (or snow!), just days of mist, and unseasonably warm temperatures. The temperatures have encouraged rapid blackgrass growth, if the blackgrass has 2 or more leaves I am still encouraging autumn Atlantis use. At the [...]
The key observation concerning all crops this autumn has been the prolonged unseasonably mild conditions. We’ve had enough rain to get full germination now in all the cloddy, baked-out backward areas, but it doesn’t look as if there was enough residual herbicide hanging about to be successfully reactivated. Consequently over the last week or so [...]
The mild, damp weather continues, with heavy mists this week reducing the opportunities for spray applications onto anything like dry leaves. We shouldn’t be lulled into a false sense of security; last year the really cold weather didn’t start until the last week of November. Oilseed rape crops continue to grow rapidly and some are [...]
Justin Hayward once sang: “my life will be forever autumn” and this is certainly how things feel in the South West at the moment. Crop growth has carried on unhindered and early November drilled wheats after grass leys are now fully emerged. The damp, mild weather has allowed grassweeds to emerge, especially since the last [...]
Crops in the North West have continued to develop rapidly – too rapidly in some cases with lush, leafy growth, full of disease – especially mildew. Few would want it the other way round, though, as in many years we have failed to complete autumn sowing due to excess rain, so this year is better in [...]