Getting any sort of drilling done is still one of the main priorities, however, farmers are urged to keep an eye on the crops already in the ground and make the most of the small windows of opportunity to spray.

Yorkshire’s Arable Alliance agronomist, David Martindale, says it been a incredibly tough autumn on farmers.

“I never thought the frequent question two months ago of, ‘How late can I drill oilseed rape?’ would be replaced by, ‘How late can I drill wheat?’ A sign of what must be one of the most difficult and frustrating autumn drilling campaigns.”

Mr Martindale believes that a lot of growers will have struggled to apply their pre-emergence and early post-emergence herbicides, so will be resorting to plan C. Although he admits it’s not ideal, he recommend Atlantis (iodosulfuron + mesosulfuron) plus a strong residual will be the main hit to the blackgrass.

In the East, Farmacy agronomist Phil Vickers admits farmers are having to play the waiting game as to when they can get on the field spraying, but with so little done he urges farmers to be quick and opportunistic.

“With limited spraying days now likely, we must make the best use of the time available. I am encouraging immediate propyzamide and carbetamide applications on OSR crops (that have at least four true leaves), along with a fungicide and insecticide.”
Farmacy agronomist Phil Vickers

“With limited spraying days now likely, we must make the best use of the time available. I am encouraging immediate propyzamide and carbetamide applications on OSR crops (that have at least four true leaves), along with a fungicide and insecticide.

“Cereal herbicides applied post-emergence, are still going to be based on flufenacet, with residual stacking still being the backbone of all my programmes. At the present moment in time it is difficult to see an Atlantis/Hatra application window, but should we be lucky enough for one to open we must be opportunistic,” says Mr Vickers.

In the West, Neil Potts reports drilling of winter crops somewhere between 50% and 75% complete while the maize crop is coming off between the showers, but like other crops, has suffered from a torrid year.

“As expected yields are well down and there is a lot of mess left behind in fields and on the roads. Many maize stubbles are due to be planted to wheat this autumn. If this is to happen we are going to need a significant dry spell in order to achieve anything approaching a reasonable seed-bed for the wheat,” says Mr Potts.

Further South, AICC agronomist Tod Hunnisett has actually been impressed with how much drilling has been done considering the conditions. He does however highlight those with drilling still to be done shouldn’t be panicked into making rash decisions.

“The plug has pretty much been pulled on any winter barley crops not yet drilled, but I’m not too worried yet about wheat. We’ve seen in the past how late we can go with winter wheat.

“Yields for December-drilled wheat can easily equal those of spring wheat without the added hassle of trying to get seed that is very expensive and likely to be in short supply,” he says.

More on this topic

Read the agronomists’ reports in full on our Crop Watch blog