Last week's rain every day looks as though it came just in time to save Ben Atkinson's 780ha of oilseed rape in Lincs which had been suffering in the dry soil.
"The sting in the tail is that the slugs are back and up for a fight," he said.
After rain rendered earlier control pellet applications at Grange Farm, Rippingale useless, a mix of 4kg/ha of cheap minis with 2kg/ha of a more rainfast better quality product is being used for the repeat treatments required on about a fifth of the crop.
"I always hoped I wouldn't become one of those grumpy old farmers that moaned about the weather," said Mr Atkinson. "Too late!
"We seem to be in a year of extremes. The first dry period robbed us of our yield and the first wet one flooded and flattened our crops, ruined soil structures and bogged combines."
This autumn's dry weather led to poor establishment in Castille, Catana and Kalif OSR and made pre- wheat drilling cultivations difficult, he added.
"Now we have another wet time which has awoken the slugs. 80% of the crop is OK, but 20% is having to fight them.
"Having held back a little on wheat pre-em herbicides due to the very dry seed-beds, we've been struggling to catch up with the spraying. But we're just about keeping up."
About 60% of his 1600ha of wheat - Humber, Oakley, and Welford with Cordiale as the second crop - was drilled by today.
"That's rising by 4% a day."
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