Recently by Brian Ross

As this is being written, three inches of snow cover the ground and there have been at least three decent frosts. All this, is to my mind, is a very good thing. Many crops are just too lush and forward especially since the Christmas period, with them greening up and appearing to be taking up mineralising nitrogen. It's just not right for this time of year.

Disease levels in wheat which had calmed down during late November were being reported as increasing again, particularly yellow rust with some brown rust as well. Many people had resisted the urge to apply fungicide up to this point on the advice of most experts, but if the mild weather had continued, rethinks were on the cards.

However, this spell will certainly put a brake on things and may bring things back to where they should be disease wise anyway, time will tell.

It is all very well and good saying: "once the frosts come, most of our present problems will go", but when is this going to happen?

All week the queries come in about decisions on whether to spray ccereals with fungicides. Winter barleys in this area are covered in mildew and quite rank in growth. There is some debate about the thickness of the crop needing to be controlled and if control of mildew does occur, will this lead to too many tillers being left and, therefore, a possible loss in yield.

Certainly later barleys are at risk if this weather continues, plus the fact that aphids are readily being found in many crops, meaning a trip through is likely anyway. There has already been some fungicide treatment applied and I suspect more will be done.

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.

Oilseed rape crops are still growing away, especially the earlier-drilled ones though some of the later stands that had emergence problems after heavy downpours are also looking good. If the weather remains warm and wet we will have to think about regulating some crops.

 

Seed dressings so far are holding up and slug damage is being monitored closely. The threat of turnip yellows virus is at the moment very low as reports from Broom's Barn show Myzus persicae catches in suction traps are very low. However vigilance will be required as these aphids can migrate later on if the winter is mild.

 

Having had quite a bit of moisture since 1 August it won't be long before we get the necessary 20 days of rain to trigger phoma infections. Monitoring and receiving phoma alerts will be important. Two sprays this autumn look to be on the cards if conditions carry on as they are.

 

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 yield forecasts for good wheats by 1 to 1.25t/ha, which is a lot better than we were first looking at.

Of course, with this rain we now have a lot of greenery appearing in the bottom of thin cereals and I suspect that a lot of pre-harvest glyphosate will be needed.

Oilseed rape crops have benefited from the swelling of seeds in the pods and although record yields I feel are not on the cards, some very respectable ones could be attained. Desiccation is not far off in the lighter soils and amongst the few early varieties.

There is no good news from this part of the world regarding cereals and a re-forecasting of yield potential is definitely needed.

Even the early first wheats, which were hanging on, are now waxing up and curling. Late-drilled wheat, many second wheat crops and spring cereals are in a perilous situation. Where the odd, and I mean odd, shower has been, the difference is very noticeable. But this is more a result of the sudden uptake of nitrogen than a relaxation from drought.

There has been very little disease, but I have noticed some yellow rust returning in Oakley where the fungicide timing has been stretched due to the wind, as well as some mildew at the stem base.

Generally, winter barley is fully out in ear and looks good, but water will be needed for grain fill and the light land crops are dying off quickly.

Here in the arid east no rain is forecast for yet another week, although we can expect some lower temperatures. Personally, I have never experienced such a dry start to spring and apart from the early drilled cereals, crops are beginning to show stress symptoms.

Drought conditions, coupled with the large amount of Oakley wheat, have seen an explosion in yellow rust whether the crops had a T0 fungicide or not. Viscount, Duxford and Solstice have also been affected, although not as badly. This is not a happy situation and although we have the armoury to deal with it, it is just another cost regardless of how much wheat is worth.

I am also seeing a large amount of "blind" racemes on many oilseed rape crops. This is not a varietal issue, as some have claimed, as many varieties I have seen are affected. Later- drilled crops appear worst affected by the lack of uptake of nitrogen and higher diurnal ranges in temperature than earlier drilled, well established crops.

Despite the warm weekdays we have had, the night temperatures have been cold and this has reflected on the lack of growth in many cereals in this area.

The colour has improved, but growth has not. Further north of me, some crops on the lighter soils are near to GS31, but here some might be at the T0 stage by the end of this week. Soil temperatures are still low and the clays soils certainly are, and this I think is the problem, we need warm nights.

Of course the next thing is going to be lack of rain!! Fertiliser going on needs it and although spring crops have, in general gone in well, they will soon feel the effects particularly on the lighter soils.

It is still very wet underfoot as I write this and the last two early mornings we had frost on the ground. So, although we have had some warm days cold nights are giving quite a diurnal range, which is not ideal for growth,

Having said that, crops are greening up even though fertiliser, in the main, has not been applied. But, in order for mineralisation to occur there must be nitrogen left in the soil after the winter.

In general, oilseed rape crops that haven't been stripped by pigeons and/or rabbits look very well with new growth being seen. There is quite a lot of phoma on leaves, even where a single spray was applied earlier, but those who got two sprays on are not suffering as badly.

There is still benefit, particularly on the smaller leaved crops, to apply a non-regulating fungicide as soon as possible as experts are suggesting there could be some big losses from phoma damage this year.

It's remarkable that crops look as well as they do given the November and December weather. With January being a bit warmer than last year wheat crops, particularly the earlier drilled ones, have responded and greened up well. Forward crops here are at GS23-25 with the later drilled ones at GS21 plus.

The small amount of winter barley I have is also green and well tillered, and at the moment not showing any manganese deficiency where I would have expected some. Disease levels, as expected, are not significant though mildew is still showing on both forward wheats and barleys. Septoria as always is on the older leaves of many wheat crops and will need watching as temperatures and rain splash becomes important in the next two to three weeks.

Oilseed rape establishment in this area is, by and large, very good and the crops were looking very good indeed until the enormous amount of pest ravaging by both pigeons and, as last year, rabbits. It's heartbreaking in some crops that so much is going on. The bigger crops will survive this but some of the later and so smaller crops are at risk, unless the pests are kept off. Some crops also did not receive a fungicide, so smaller crops are still at risk.