Recently by Tod Hunnisett

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 I've seen a considerable emergence of blackgrass in places, and follow up treatments are now becoming necessary. The good news is that the mild, growy conditions should mean the Atlantis-type follow ups should work very well.

 

The mild conditions have brought on an onset of disease, particularly mildew. Net blotch and rhyncho are being found in barley, along with low levels of both brown and yellow rust in wheat. I am taking note of this, but apart from the worst mildew cases in barley on thin soils, I'm not yet taking remedial action. What it means though is my early spring fungicide applications are likely to be extremely robust.

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.

After a frustratingly late end to harvest most people managed to get their winter rape drilled and most is now growing away, albeit slowly.

I had my suspicions that something other than slugs was nipping it off below the surface when a colleague suggested he had the same suspicions and suggested it might be millipedes. Apparently young sugar beet plants get damaged by millipedes and on further inspection there did seem to be very high numbers. Any comments or observations on this would be most welcome.

Winter wheat is being drilled as I write and is going in very well with good seed-beds and plenty of moisture. Slug numbers are very high in places, especially after winter rape, and some fields have been treated pre-drilling with a reduced rate of pellets. If there are large areas of rape stubbles that are clean of volunteers I would suggest that closer inspection and remedial treatment is worthwhile.

At the time of writing harvest has been frustratingly held up by enough rain every 36 hours to prevent it going further. It's been a pretty protracted harvest so far, with an early start but will end up being a late finish.

 

Yields have ranged from fairly ordinary to outstanding, and are directly proportional, even within a field, to the quality of the soil they are growing on. The exception is winter oilseed rape, having had a fantastic year, albeit with huge varietal differences. So much for blind pods and pollen beetle damage.

 

Regardless of different crops, if anyone had said back in late May that we would be harvesting even average yields this year we would have happily accepted that.

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 many of these crops will now continue to stay green for a near normal period of time. To that end, all my wheats will have had a triazole/strobilurin ear-wash by the time this report goes to press. However, the overall fungicide spend this year will be similar or less than last year. 

 

The rain has meant final germination of all the spring-drilled crops and as soon as the weather warms up I'm sure the maize will take off nicely. As it was so dry at drilling hardly any crops received a pre-emergence herbicide and those that did nearly all need over-spraying. 

I had a young enthusiastic Harper student come out with me a couple of weeks back and I said "It's not like this in a normal spring". Then I thought - what is a "normal" spring? Every one I think of over the last ten years has been different and has brought with it its own challenges.

Lack of rainfall is an obvious fact of this spring. But my opinion is that moisture deficit alone is nowhere near as big a problem as it becomes when it is combined with either unseasonably searing temperatures or desiccating north-easterly winds.

This year we have had both and I don't need to describe the problems as every communication in our industry has highlighted them at every opportunity.

So what do we do? Prices are high, there's a lot of value to protect. But there is likely to be some yield penalty as a result of the weather and disease levels are generally low.

We had 6mm of rain at the beginning of April and that was the first for three weeks, so everything remains very dry. But surprisingly, the well established winter crops don't appear to have suffered too much, especially those that received a reasonable early dose of nitrogen.

 

Earlier drilled spring crops look fine, but those drilled later may struggle a bit until they get some rain with the exception of early drilled linseed, which seems to have been hammered by flea beetle.

 

The warm conditions have increased insect activity. We have had the pollen beetle panic followed by unprecedented levels of pea and bean weevil in emerging crops. Now this can seriously reduce yields so prompt action is worthwhile, and repeat action is often necessary.

 

Having been away for a couple of weeks, the biggest difference I have seen on my return is the fact that you can actually travel over the ground. What a difference a bit of dry weather makes. Outstanding spray tickets have been wrapped up, fertiliser has been applied, and spring drilling is well under way.

 

Wheats are beginning to wake up properly now with quite a few crops at GS30, although I've not seen any at GS31 so I'm not rushing in with plant growth regulators and T0s just yet. I shall continue with my policy of robust sprays at T0 and T1, keeping triazole rates relatively high, with the opportunity of cutting back later should the season allow.

 

It's very tempting to let the safety net of high grain prices turn into a licence to spend money for the sake of it, but being fundamentally a skinflint by character I shall try not to let that happen. Also being a contrary, cussed creature who pathologically has to go against media hype I shouldn't find it too difficult.

Early-sown wheats and those on fertile soils have started to wake up and they must be picking up nitrogen from somewhere as they are all a healthy green colour. The warmer conditions following a cold December have stimulated a flush of broad-leaved weeds, nothing too serious, but I haven't seen any spring-germinated blackgrass yet.

 

Second wheats and later-drilled crops will get their first sulphur/nitrogen dressing as ground conditions allow but the more forward crops probably won't need anything until March.

 

If the crops, and therefore weeds, continue to grow then it' is worth considering any outstanding Atlantis (iodosulfuron + mesosulfuron) treatments, provided the partner products are within timing limits. If the target weeds are actively growing at the time of application it won't matter if it comes back cold again afterwards, but don't spray Atlantis during cold periods.

One of the few positive things that comes out of a major reduction insupply of a product in the market place is the realisation of just how well we can cope without it. This year, where I would have gone in with Crystal automatically, or where I would have used it at a lower rate for meadow grass control, I have been pleasantly surprised at how effective the alternative strategies have been.

 

Pendimethalin alone, on good seedbeds and straight after drilling, has worked fantastically in a block of winter barley with a known high population of (albeit as yet not difficult) blackgrass. Higher diflufenican rates (100g/ha plus), particularly in mixture with pendmethalin and prosulfocarb, have worked extremely well.