Recently by Patrick Stephenson

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 days!" This is followed the following week by "let's spray that late drilled wheat". 

With such a mild and prolonged autumn, crops look really well and a flock of a few thousand sheep could fatten over winter in North Yorkshire and not make an impact. Yellow rust can now be found in the Oakley crops and is fighting a battle for leaf space with mildew. No spraying is planned for theses crops this autumn, but T0 will have to be timed well in the spring. Atlantis (mesosulfuron + iodosulfuron) sprays are working well, but nerves start jangling when there are still a few blackgrass plants looking healthy.

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.

 

It was certainly a first for me having to deal with the question is it to hot to spray? Yes in May and June - but October? Common sense dictates that chemical degradation and volatilisation is likely to increase but with only a limited spray window spraying has continued.

Seed-beds on the whole are good as the rain that disrupted our harvest has benefited cultivation. Early drilled crops are now emerging and many will be receiving peri or early post-emergence treatments. Flufenacet provides the backbone of the early spraying regime and we hope that control levels will be as good as last year.

Slugs are noticeable by their absence and with rapid emergence hopefully the highest risk period is past. This should help minimise the amount of metaldehyde used this season helping protect this useful active.

Drilling will be entering the final furlong this week with crops following roots, maize and second wheats finishing off what looks like a promising start.

Oilseed rape is now reaching six true leaves with some crops already very large! As usual flea beetle, pheasants, rabbits, and the odd slug have started fattening up for winter on the rape crop.

Harvest enters its final chapter with the last remnants being gathered up. A long and protracted affair best summed up as a curates egg, good in parts. Comments in the press about record harvest are a little optimistic, and although I feel we will be on the right side of average I don't think a record crop is in store.

Commodity prices remain relatively strong for spot and future sales, giving more confidence nd the battle is now on to optimise winter plantings. Maximising wheat and rape acreages will be the goal but a wet, late harvest has already put us on the back foot.

Rape following barley is now up and away. Depending on type of establishment crops have either received a metazachlor-based product immediately after drilling or at expanded cotyledon. On min-tillage systems volunteer cereals have been targeted as well.

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 wash sprays are applied. No one treatment dominates the area, although tebuconazole offers a cost effective option.

Like many advisors and growers I have looked at scores of fungicide trials and found few if any visual differences. But the more unsettled weather may now tease out a few visual differences.

Cereal leaf beetle has certainly had a "good" year and numbers are very high. Overall, this pest is more visual than yield robbing so remains untreated in most crops.

The current favourite game played by agronomists and growers is "Beat my Rainfall". All we need is Bruce Forsyth to host and we have a new game show. In short, there has not been a lot of rain in the south and east of the country. Crops are very short and currently growers might be able to harvest enough straw to knit a jumper with. 

If not critical already, June's rainfall will be make or break crops. With soil moisture deficits commonly over 110mm, grain fill will be solely reliant on rainfall. An inch of rain at flowering could be worth an additional 2.5 t/ha for cereals. Sunday is the village Gala, so expect the drought to end then.

Not only are the cereals very short, they are also very open and weeds are recovering from earlier spring sprays. This coupled with the late germinating ones means pre-harvest desiccation could be widespread this season.

March and April have so far provided the combined total of 12mm of rainfall. Needless to say, crops are not appreciating this lack of water. It remains to be seen what the impact of this will be on yields, but the light land must be losing yield potential with every passing dry day.

Yellow rust arrived in winter wheat crops with a bang on 10 April, triggering a rush to arms. Many crops had been sprayed already and those that were due an application received one quickly. The arrival of yellow rust starts the spray programme with every effort made to keep the spray interval below 25 days. On varieties not prone to yellow rust, the main discussion points have been when to spray and how little active ingredient to use in this dry weather? In short, you should still spray, and you can cut rates, but not by huge amounts.

Most oilseed rape crops will have either received a sclerotinia spray or will be due imminently. My favoured mix has been based around prothioconazole with a partner product. Most of the models for sclerotinia risk were triggered earlier in the month, but with no rain and no flowers, I have advocated delaying until petal fall. Weevils have been common on headlands, but in field numbers are variable. As a consequence, some crops have been sprayed and nearly all headlands will receive a spray.

Despite the large quantities of chlorpyrifos applied for wheat bulb fly, dead hearts are easily found in wheat crops. Some crops have been badly affected and will need tender loving care to nurse them through! Plant populations are good and a warm rain would push the crops to rapid growth.

Yellow rust is present on the Wolds, but no further North yet. T0 sprays will be scheduled for next week on the susceptible varieties. Latent septoria is also easily found but with only 3mm of rain so far in March, new leaves should be clean.

The beginning and end of February are very different beasts, with day length growing and the possibility of field work looming.

The telephone having hibernated for the winter starts its spring chirping as first top dressing starts to be organised and Nutrient Management Plans are finalised. The total impact of the winter weather is still being assessed as more winter beans succumb to frost damage.

Winter oats have already been filed in the dustbin and frantic efforts are being made to find alternative break crops. At present, no spring barley has been drilled as a wet and mild February has prevented land work.

A few cold and crisp days have enabled me to escape from the office or lecture theatre to walk the crops and assess how they are wintering. On the whole it is good news with little damage evident; however the winter oats tell another story!

There is no doubt that once the snow cleared and temperatures dropped below -10˚C damage has been done to these crops. It is early days to say how much but it could be significant on some