Crop Watch: Winter wheat in flower and T3 timing arrives

The recent warm weather has seen crops quickly race through their growth stage, with wheat in flower and ready for T3 fungicide applications.

Here is the latest from Farmers Weekly’s Crop Watch agronomists.

See also: Novel electric weeder works without chemicals or moving soil

East

Rory Kissock, Farmacy (Essex, Herts, Cambs and Suffolk)

The lack of rain has continued in the East. Some crops are managing to find moisture from somewhere, while others are struggling.

Winter wheat on heavy land are just about holding up, but they will need a drink soon as gravel/sand hotspots are showing up.

Light land crops are showing signs of the drought.

Ears have emerged and T3 fungicide applications are now going on and will be focused around prothioconazole for ear diseases and tebuconazole for a rust top up.

A strobilurin is being added for rust protection on susceptible varieties.

Timing for this is GS63-GS65 as soon as ears have fully emerged and flowering is under way, with first anthers visible in the middle florets.

Winter beans have struggled in the high temperatures over the bank holiday weekend and are flowering.

Tebuconazole and azoxystrobin applied together will give good protection from chocolate spot, rust and Aschochyta.

An alternative which has good activity on chocolate spot and rust is benzovindiflupyr, but is restricted to one application.

Spring beans are struggling with the dry conditions and are very short and will soon be in flower, which will no doubt cause problems when combining.

Peas have found moisture and have been enjoying the sunshine – I am yet to find any aphids but once seen then pirimicarb should be applied to reduce virus transmission risk.

The peak time for pea moth is the end of May/beginning of June.

Two traps should be placed in the crop and when 10-plus moths in either trap on two consecutive occasions is reached, an insecticide should be applied.

Sugar beet is very varied within the same field. Broad-leaved weed control is coming towards the end; third applications are being applied and in general have been effective.

Aphid levels are low, but ongoing inspection is essential and once at threshold an insecticide will be applied to prevent virus yellows.

There have also been reports of beet moth caterpillars; typically these will be found in the centre of the growing point.

Maize, being a C4 crop, is growing nicely. Broad-leaved weed pressure is currently low, and if we are lucky enough to get some rain these will soon appear.

Timing of herbicides is essential due to growth stage restrictions.

Knowing the weed populations in the field and having herbicides ready will help timely applications.

South

Justin Smith, Procam (East Sussex)

The hot conditions that dominated the final few days of May mean the fight against rust shows little sign of relenting.

With significant rainfall events and an ongoing appetite for early drillings, T3 fungicides treatments continue to play a vital role in protecting winter wheat yield.

Even the simplest of late-season fungicide applications can be a wise investment, especially on the higher-quality wheats.

Winter barleys generally look spectacular, and the gate is now closed on most. Winter beans are also in good health and podding well.

They look to be full of promise despite their initial early spring chocolate-spot setbacks.

Applications of azoxystrobin and tebuconazole have now been completed on late-flowering crops to keep bean rust at bay.

Unfortunately, due to their protracted emergence, some of my spring beans don’t look quite as hopeful and continue to succumb to pea and bean weevil pressure.

After two well-timed insecticides and nutritional boosts, I am loath to do any more and will leave it up to mother nature to take it from here.

Spring-sown cereals range from the good to the bad to the ugly.

The difference in quality is very much dependant on variations in drilling date and establishment method, with varying strategies employed in the wake of the previous winter’s monsoons and spring droughts.

Many crops are now at ear emergence and in urgent need of help from some well-timed moisture.

In spring barley, my concerns for late-season ramularia means a multisite (folpet) will be included at the T2 timing.

In wheat and oats, the main disease driver for fungicide choice is rust: tebuconazole, pyraclostrobin and benzovindiflupyr. All remain relatively cheap and strong options.

However, to avoid prolonging harvest and senescence, I am resisting using late strobilurins on oats due to the greening effect.

Despite the dry conditions, forage maize seed-bed quality has generally been consistent and well consolidated.

As a result, pendimethalin residuals have been used widely to buy time against flushing weeds.

Another consideration for this application was to avoid large tank mixtures at later growth stages, potentially in hot and dry conditions, when the use of multiple herbicide actives in one mixture can potentially be damaging to the crop.

Finally, I eagerly await the next thrilling instalment of agronomy challenges as my game cover, pumpkin, sunflower, fodder beet and forage crops start to appear.

North

Mary Munro, Munro Agricultural Consultancy (East Lothian)

Our weather switched from cold and dry to warm and dry, and wheat crops were starting to show patches of drought stress with the classic rolled leaves.

A wetter week has come along in good time.

It is proving to be a challenging year for crop spraying, with windy conditions prevailing much of the time, allied with intermittent showers – enough to prevent spraying but insufficient to penetrate to the roots.

Most growers have got their wheat T2s on, and the ears are emerging.

My programmes have been dual-purpose in approach, aiming to have good protection against both septoria and yellow rust.

Lack of rain kept septoria confined to the lowest leaves, even when the spray intervals had been stretched, but we cannot take our eye off the ball in showery conditions.

Yellow rust, on the other hand, is ready to flare up wherever the gap gets too long.

So far, even the delayed sprays have kept the rust just about under control and where there are pustules, they are inactive, but to me this feels a bit too close for comfort.

Checking out untreated plants in the corners of fields show how much we rely on the chemistry.

We can’t relax once the flag leaf sprays are on, as there is a long way to go to harvest.

I am keeping an eye on aphid numbers which are too low for concern right now but could multiply quickly at just the wrong time, while the grains are watery ripe.

I won’t spray if they do not reach threshold levels. Some brome has been sprayed around the field edges to stop it encroaching too far into the crop.

Spring oats and barley are looking good, if a little thirsty.

There was adequate moisture in the soil at sowing for them to get well-established and tillered out, and in most cases all that’s needed now is a proper wetting.

There is little disease in spring cereals.

Spring beans are just coming into flower; brome treatments are on.  I hope there is enough rain to ensure a good quantity of pods.

Potato irrigators have been flat out watering the emerging plants but for many growers the weather earlier in the week has taken the pressure off a little.

A challenging year for crop management indeed.

West

Will Spurdens, Ceres Rural (Shropshire and Cheshire)

The recent warm weather has altered crops dramatically; wheat is nearly all in flower and ready for T3 fungicide applications.

This is largely consisting of prothioconazole and tebuconazole for the protection against ear diseases such as fusarium, but also to help with any yellow rust knockdown.

This disease is a real problem in the varieties with the Yr15 gene such as Dawsum and Champion. Keeping rust at bay has been a real challenge.

Septoria pressure has been fairly low thanks to the dry conditions, but crops certainly look cleaner where we used our best chemistry options with more green leaf area.

This will, hopefully, translate to yield.

For the majority of crops in this area there is good potential, with only the lighter fields starting to flag under the heat and dry conditions.

Spring crops are rapidly changing, with barley awns coming out, beans and peas coming into flower and most maize crops reaching the four- to five-leaf stage.

It hasn’t been easy to keep up with them.

Spring cereals have had herbicide and fungicide sprays, with some starting their second.

Spring beans and peas will soon need their first fungicide and maize is reaching its optimum timing for post-emergence herbicides.

Fodder beet has received its second herbicide application and another is due to be applied shortly.

Hopefully we get a bit more rain and crops carry on to harvest without much more help from us.