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All Crop Watch news

Agronomists from all areas of the UK report weekly on their crop management from establishment to harvest. Keep up-to-date with their progress and the latest crop developments as the growing season progresses and key decisions on disease, pest and weed control have to be made.

CROP WATCH

Crop Watch: Wet weather ruins cropping and herbicide plans

In our final Crop Watch installment of 2023, our agronomists reflect on what has been a grim autumn disrupting drilling and herbicide applications to wheat.  With wheat drilling unlikely to…

CROP WATCH

Crop Watch: Wheat crop failures and missed herbicides

The huge cost of week after week of rain is becoming apparent, with wheat crops rotting and being written off. Many of those crops that have survived have not received…

CROP WATCH

Crop Watch: Wet autumn sees rotting seed and missed sprays

The wet weather continues and, as one of our agronomists suggests, it is turning into one of the most trying autumns for some years.  Many of the planned autumn operations…

CROP WATCH

Crop Watch: Babet's rain holds up last of autumn drilling

Wet weather is disrupting the end of the autumn drilling season, with some growers struggling to get the last of their heavy blackgrass-infested land sown. Slugs remain a big problem,…

CROP WATCH

Crop Watch: Virus alert in cereals and phoma in OSR

This autumn has turned into an uninspiring start to the cropping season. The warm, wet weather means it's easy to find phoma lesions in the OSR crops that survived the…

CROP WATCH

Crop Watch: Slug invasion and less herbicides for winter beans

The wet autumn continues with barely a day without rain. As one of our agronomists points out, it is the first high slug pressure season since the loss of metaldehyde,…

CROP WATCH

Crop Watch: Turnip sawfly add to growing OSR pest pressure

Turnip sawfly larvae are back with a vengeance, with high numbers adding to the pest pressure in crops in the South and South West. There are concerns over the increased…

CROP WATCH

Crop Watch: Rain has stopped, but woes continue

Signs of drought are being seen in crops as the higher temperatures this week stress plants. One positive is that the lack of moisture is helping to suppress disease, leading…

CROP WATCH

Crop Watch: Sugar beet weeds and mosaic virus in wheat

The weather has swung to the other extreme and some crops, such as peas, on light land are struggling for water. One worry for winter cereals is that those with…

CROP WATCH

Crop Watch: High blackgrass levels and T3 spray strategies

June is the month when any deficiencies in weed control become visible with blackgrass and other grassweeds waving above cereal crops. This year, there seems to be more of them…

CROP WATCH

Crop Watch: Time for T2 sprays as settled spell arrives

Septoria is at alarming levels in many wheat crops and the weather has settled down in time for the all-important T2 spray. Hopefully, it means these fungicides will go on…

CROP WATCH

Crop Watch: Sprayers dodging showers and maize horror

The wait for more settled conditions continues, with the scarcity of spray days forcing growers to reduce the number of passes through crops. One challenge to emerge this spring is…

CROP WATCH

Crop Watch: Winter barley races away and late start to maize

April turned out to only be marginally better than March, prolonging the struggle to get spring crops drilled and keep on top of spraying.  But while field work progress has…

CROP WATCH

Crop Watch: Blackgrass flowering in cold, wet spring

It’s proving to be a gloomy spring, and not just in terms of a lack of sunshine. Growers have spring crops with headlands that have rotted off in the March…

CROP WATCH

Crop Watch: T1 plans bolstered to tackle rising septoria risk

Hopes are growing for a spell of drier weather to help ease the septoria epidemic being seen in wheat crops. With T1s coming up, some fungicide programes are being bolstered…

CROP WATCH

Crop Watch: Disease and lodging are priority in soggy spring

Easter saw a short respite in the wet weather with growers trying to catch up with drilling, fertiliser spreading and spraying. While it allowed some jobs to be done, it…