Catchy weather has been dragging out harvest in some areas, affecting fieldwork for following crops, according to our Crop Watch agronomists.

Although the bulk of harvest had been gathered by the beginning of the week there were still fields of wheat, beans and spring barley to cut, said Cambridge-based Will Foss of UAP.

“As a result there is a wide drilling window for oilseed rape,” he said. Fields that had been drilled in early August had 3-4 true leaves, but some seed was still in the bag.

Rape that had been sown had established well with plenty of moisture. Crops had been treated pre-emergence, or more commonly post-emergence, with a residual herbicide plus graminicide where volunteer cereals had emerged with the crop.

“Predictions of higher dormancy in blackgrass this season seem to be holding true as there has been little blackgrass emergence in rape so far,” he added.

Further north, growers were facing a similar rape drilling challenge, said Yorkshire-based AICC agronomist Patrick Stephenson. “Many wheat crops have just been combined. How late can you drill? For my clients passing the 10 September is courting trouble.”

However, rape following barley was now up and away. Depending on type of establishment, crops had either received a metazachlor-based product immediately after drilling or at expanded cotyledon. On min-tillage systems volunteer cereals had been targeted as well.

Slug activity was low and few pellets had been applied, he noted. Flea beetle activity was only noticeable on home-saved seed lots at present.

Wheat drilling had started. “Pre-emergence weed control is the goal for most clients and flufenacet will form the core of most programmes.”

Rape drilling was going well in the south, said ProCam’s Nick Brown, with about 75% of the crop drilled in the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire region.

Initially slug activity looked low, but recent rains had increased activity. “I have pelleted most crops and the remainder will receive a dose of metaldehyde in the next few days.”

He was using a good quality 1.5% pellet. “At 3.5kg/ha it gives 50 baiting points/sq m and can be used up to four times at this rate before reaching the 210g (pre-31 December) limit.”

In the south west, however, harvest was far from complete though it was progressing well last weekend, reported Neil Potts of Devon-based Matford Arable.

“Despite the dry spell in March and April yields have held up well on all but the most drought-prone soils.

“Many crops looked horrible until well into May when nitrogen applied in April finally kicked in. For the second year in succession harvest results have had a lot to do with the moisture retentiveness of the soil.”

Winter oilseed rape has yielded close to 5t/ha on many farms and some winter barleys as a first cereal had yielded about 11t/ha and 8-9t/ha as a second cereal. Winter wheat had been outstanding in places with yields well over 10t/ha, he said.

Potato agronomist John Sarup, director of SPUD Agronomy (Yorkshire), said there potato crops were showing a huge amount of variability in northern England and the Scottish Borders.

“Generally size is not an issue and it’s mainly tuber number which is determining whether a crop is high or low yielding,” he said.

“If anything, most crops are on the bold side so making decisions on the timing of burn down will be crucial if oversize is to be prevented.”

Quality was also extremely variable mainly due to blackleg, but latterly powdery scab seemed to be more prevalent due to the cool and damp conditions in August, he added.

Harvest and store management of these crops will be crucial, he said. “Key points for minimising the spread of blackleg bacteria are achieving 100% skin set before harvest and positive ventilation in store.”