Recently in West Category

February again and is spring just around the corner? It certainly seemed like it 10 days ago with fields looking as green and advanced as a normal March. The cold snap has steadied things up and at least the Charlock looks a bit sicker now. Once again frost had the greatest effect where SOLA bifenox was applied previously.

A striking effect of the mild winter was seen last week in South Wales in a BYDV trial. Untreated plots and the guard area around the trial were heavily infected; plants in these areas had roughly half the biomass of those in the treated areas.

Most cereals have high shoot numbers and will require careful nitrogen and PGR management. Even with high levels of mildew winter barley still carries lots of tillers. Wheat is very similar with early drilled Grafton carrying 10 or more tillers. Don't forget that HGCA lodging rating is not an absolute figure and can vary by several points depending on sowing date and shoot number. Root lodging is likely to be most severe in early sown, over thick crops so take every step to keep these crops in check.

The mild autumn has meant that crops have continued to grow, which has been a huge relief where crops were starved of moisture until rain arrived around the 3rd week October and did not emerge until that point. It has also allowed the very backward rape crops to get to the advanced stage of 4 true leaves and pretty much all germinate!

Ground conditions are very good as, in fairness, it has to date been relatively dry since the first rainfall of October. We have had somewhere in the region of 5" of rainfall since that point.

We had our first taste of winter three weeks ago, with a four day run of temperatures down as low as -5C. Frosts are forecast for most of this week as well. The good field conditions has meant clients have started to apply P&K where required. With the warm winter some wild oats are already 8-10" tall and I have been finding spring germinating wild oats for the last 2-3 weeks.

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 after planting. The mild spell has also allowed later drilled crops of oilseed rape and winter linseed to put on growth and establish better before the onset of winter. Some of the August drilled oilseed rape now has such a large canopy that it now has the potential to become a management headache rather than being straightforward.

Pre-emergence herbicides have either worked really well or grass weeds are slow to emerge this autumn. I have several known brome sites where there is very little sign of  Brome emergence and certainly not enough to go with an Atalantis (iodosulfuron + mesosulfuron) or Broadway Star (florasulam and pyroxsulam) application.

This is unfortunate as the mild weather would have made for ideal timing for either of these products, which are temperature dependant for efficacy. Volunteer beans have now been controlled in many crops, particularly those established using non-inversion cultivations.

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 now above knee high (depending on the height of your knees!). The first few phoma lesions are just starting to appear, even in resistant varieties, and it's a good time to get on with a fungicide, provided that the crop leaves are reasonably dry. The addition of a sticker/extender surfactant to the fungicide is beneficial when spraying conditions are less than ideal.

Cabbage stem flea beetle larvae can be found in some crops. A pyrethroid insecticide can be added to the fungicide if necessary.

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 spell of heavy rain wetted through cloddy areas of strong land.  Residual herbicide performance has not been as consistently excellent as last year.

The mild conditions and good levels of blackgrass emergence means conditions are ideal for autumn contact materials and a dry spell this week should see a lot of spraying completed.  Winged aphids are being detected in cereals, therefore, an aphicide will be prudent. 

Insecticidal seed treatments on early-sown crops will be nearing the end of their useful performance so should also be treated.

Over the last 10 days, we have had approximately 25-40mm of rain across the whole region, which has been enough to get all crops chitting. However, it has by no means had any major effect on the big soil-moisture deficit in this area.

The rain has arrived too late for some oilseed rape crops and I think somewhere in the region of 300-500 acres of rape has been ripped up - not all mine - in the area and either replaced with a second or third wheat or winter oats.

I have quite a few acres of rape that is still only at cotyledon to 2-3 true leaves which we are leaving to see if they make it through to the spring. With soil temperatures still at 12C, crops are growing quickly, especially where they have either poultry litter or sludge cake underneath them.

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.

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.

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.

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.