With the prospects of no significant rain for yet another week in the southern half of the UK is anybody going to start drilling wheat yet? Our stale seedbeds are as dry as they were a month ago. A few volunteer beans have sprouted but there are no signs of any black grass having germinated as yet.(One of my neighbours who ploughs has a field of clods the size of concrete blocks so ploughing is not the answer). I hate to think what will happen to the OSR - it has two true leaves about the size of the cotyledons. Are we in a unique area here in SW Worcestershire or are others in the same boat?

We drilled our rape 2 to 3 weeks ago and had just 5mm of rain since,so some of seed has germinated in the top half inch of soil and theres dust underneath.We have been feeding our suckler cows since the middle of august,its going to be a long winter!

Bone dry in Essex,Jim.We are irrigating spuds to lift them with less bruising risk and will give our rape some water from tomorrow.It was drilled three weeks ago,so will probably have lost vigour despite not having germinated yetOnly the nutters are out drilling wheat.Thanks for your advice on cover cropping setaside.

Had 5 mm middle of last week, rape drilled bank holiday weekend and just started to chit by Saturday just gone. Metcheck and Met office forcast some wet stuff by the weekend, surely they can't be wrong 3 weeks in a row!!! If we get no rain the rape's had it. Some people round here started drilling wheat last Monday but have stopped now. One field i have seen where wheat has found some moisture from somewhere and is up in rows in a few places!!

definitely the year to autocast rape. Spread 300 acres behind header in early august, then flatlift. Crop now has 3-4 leaves and looks a treat. anly 4 mm of rain. Trick is to put straw mulch on top of seed and let dew do its work. Put 500 acres of wheat in so far with JD 750A drill. Rape and bean stubbles flatlifted/disced/Pharrow. Most chitted.

Apparently the dryest part of the country is Aberdeenshire, where they've had only 40mm since May! These last windy warm & sunny days have really sucked the moisture away. Our grass is literally crispy! The trend is supposedly towards steadily more unsettled through next weekend and into next week - but some parts of the South and East [b][i]may stay dry![/i][/b]

My crystal ball says that it will be too wet to drill at some point this side of xmas.

So does mine, but I cannot get a date out of it! The law of averages dictates that when it starts it's not going to know when to stop.

I can remember a year not so long ago that it didnt rain enough to chit wheat until early Nov, by which time if it hadnt gone mouldy the vigour was gone and took forever to emerge. Wheat sown in late october grew away without problems.

Ringo I was suprised to read Aberdeenshire was so dry. That area has always had such a reputation for growing swedes and tatties. Are the growers coping? I farm on the edge of the pennines near Barnsley, our swedes are full of mildew,heart rot and rootfly. Caulies have been good but are now showing brown marks on some curds due to drought. Potatoes have fared better we are harvesting 23 ton to the acre, but it is too dry now to harvest them. Thanks, John.

Dunno, I live near Whitby, but saw that on a weather forum! Eastern Scotland often has weather more like Eastern England due to the mountains giving a rain shadow effect and also a fohn(spelling?)effect as the wind comes down off high ground it warms up dramatically.

This is our first full season of using the solo and getting the seedbed in one-pass rather than our usual disc/press followed by shakerator/press. I have seen a big benefit as we seem to have conserverd far more moisture that in past years by staying tight behind the combine and only moving soil once. Although rainfall has been minimal all our OSR has chitted and was growing away within a week of drilling. We are drilling wheat now and I'm supprised at the ammount of moisture still in our soils just 1" down. Last year weather here was very simialr through Sept and we had a field of OSR that took 5 weeks to emerge - I was about to re-drill it when it turned wet so was unable to get on, by the time it dried out enough to drill it was up in the rows and ended up doing nearly 2t/ac this harvest

try this 100 day forecast, they have been not far off so far this year http://www.metcheck.com/premium/index.asp?page=100day.asp dry also in N Yorks but stubbles ploughing pretty well with moisture there. Any land with volunteer rape or cereals chitting is drying fast.

Thanks very much for that link its a very useful site.

A month on and still no sign of rain, this has to be a record!

Hows your rape coping Jim,have you reached any conclusions on it yet

Not too good, out of 120 acres, 12 are fine and have been sprayed twice - volunteers & phoma/aphids, 65 acres will probably be sprayable for volunteers in the next 10 days, and the remaining 43 acres may not make it. Suprisingly it's the areas where we incorporated the straw that are OK,where the straw was sold we lost every bit of the moisture and the seed is still sitting in the bone dry soil. Most of the wheats are through, but without rain in the next ten days some may well die off - the leaves are begining to go a very dark green and curl up...

Similar picture in West Essex,rape is being pulled up everywhere except where Autocast or irrigated or drilled into scarce moisture.Most people are putting in winter beans or second wheat/barley as a replacement if they dare drill.Our rape was lucky to get some rain about three weeks ago but despite nitrogen cyper and volunteer spraying resolutely refuses to grow away well.The vigour is well shot and the drought, plus cool winds and evenings are not helping keep soil temps up.We started irrigating wheat today,three weeks after drilling has seen little emergence,but most seed still viable.Our neighbour is putting water on his rape for the second time in a vain attempt at stimulating some activity.Pigeons are dining on what miniscule plants are there.Another friend reckons next week will be dry as well!Most people are resigned to the fact they may have to redrill.Merchants are trying to up the seed price so i guess it will come out the shed!

Saw somewhere that it's been the longest period of below average rain since 1927 - bit vague, but it's been very dry indeed now.

Based in shropshire all 100 acres of rape went in 1st week of september recieved an inch of rain and has grown away now at 4 full leaves. All has recieved pre-em of butisan and has now been followed up with laser, will recieve a dressing of 20 10 10 in next few days. We had alot more trouble with patchy emergence last season seemed to have had the moisture at the right time this year. Started drilling 1st wheat on the September 12th,disced and pressed seedbeds after rape had plenty of moisture. This has been the same right through until this last weekend when we got into 2nd wheat. The seedbeds had chitted well with volunteers and blw, but amg has not germinated so it was sprayed off and drilled but very little moisture in top 2 inches. The 1st wheats have emerged well but in need of moisture now, down around evesham yesterday do feel for you its just like the sahara its nothing like this around shrewsbury.

Also I heared that it has been the warmest Jan-Sept period in UK since records began, in 1659!

Very dry in East Yorkshire too. One field of rape to be replaced by winter beans in next few days. Most min till wheats are emerging ok apart from Linola stubbles. Linseed sure takes a hell of a lot of water out of the soil and is an open crop. Neighbours who ploughed for wheat and drilled a month ago are still looking at bare ground. Only 40mm rain since July with the biggest ammount of 7.5mm , 2mm only in October so far. Ideal conditions for subsoiling though Jim!.