The mild autumn has led to forward crops of oilseed rape in areas that saw rapid establishment.

Cereal crops have benefited from the mild weather, too, but these conditions are likely to fuel the risk of barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) risk with ideal conditions for migrating aphids.

West: Neil Potts

Matford Arable (Devon)

At the time of writing, it is beginning to look like the weather might finally have broken, with rain in the forecast every day for the next week. We have, however, had a great run for completing the maize harvest and planting any planned following crops.

The winter OSR has established the best it has done for several years, thanks largely to lower flea beetle pressures and lower than usual slug populations.

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With most crops planted relatively early, they are now quite big and growing fast in the higher-than-average temperatures we are experiencing.

Consequently, many crops have reached the six to eight leaf stage in early to mid-October and have received an application of fungicide for light leaf spot and phoma combined with a plant growth regulator.

Winter cereals have emerged very rapidly and then gone on to grow quickly as well, meaning that most crops have now established very well. The down side is the warmer and drier weather is ideal for migrating aphids.

BYDV pressure

With relatively high numbers of aphids being caught in traps, it is fair to assume that the barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) pressure is going to be quite high.

Many crops have already received two BYDV insecticide applications, and unless we get a pretty rapid reversal in temperatures, the mid-September-drilled crops will probably require a third.

Due to the good conditions, most planned pre-emergence herbicides have gone on in good order and appear to be working well.

The exception to this is where seed-beds have been a bit cloddy and as the clods have started to break down with rain, we are seeing grassweed germinate.

This certainly underlines the rule that residual herbicides tend to perform best when applied to finer seed-beds.

The maize crop has this year been extremely variable in its performance. The main driver of this has been the drought.

Drier areas have suffered worse than those that managed to get some rainfall through June, July and August. Seed-bed preparation has also been a contributor to the problems with some crops.

Anywhere that seed-beds were not deep, well worked and compaction dealt with, have performed less well.

On the whole, crops that were min-tilled have also struggled this year, where for the last couple of seasons the technique has been quite successful if done properly.

With most planned autumn plantings in, there is just the tidying up of BYDV control applications and some post-emergence herbicides left to do before crops can be put to bed for the winter, with plenty of potential to look forward to as we go in to next spring.

North: David Martindale

Arable Alliance (Yorkshire)

After such a dry and easy harvest, many were fearing the autumn sowing campaign would be the time when Mother Nature would restore the balance by bringing a lot of wet weather. In reality, dry conditions prevailed for much of the main drilling period.

Cereals have now mostly been sown, with only those following recently lifted root crops still remaining.

Seed-beds and overall establishment of autumn-sown cereals have been excellent. It is rare to see heavy land crops being rolled in mid-October and even more rare to be wearing short sleeves in late October.

These mild temperatures have aided the rapid emergence of cereals, with oilseed rape transforming from its flea beetle ravaged state to impressive canopies.

Slugs have caused remarkably few problems so far in winter cereals, confined to a small number of heavy-land fields typically following oilseed rape.

Pre-emergence and early post-emergence herbicides in winter wheat and barley appear to be working well at controlling blackgrass and ryegrass. Good seed-beds will certainly be contributing to successful herbicide performance.

Spray days

Recent persistent strong winds have played havoc with herbicide applications, consequently causing some slippage in blackgrass and ryegrass control.

Grassweed control looks the least impressive where crops were sown early, seed-beds were cloddy and conditions remained dry thus reducing herbicide efficacy.

In winter wheat, it has been useful to see how the new herbicide cinmethylin has performed against existing standards.

Oilseed rape crops have grown rapidly through October due to a combination of moisture and above-average temperatures.

The decline of adult cabbage stem flea beetles have also allowed crops to finally develop unhindered, although that may soon change as small larvae are present in the leaf petioles. 

Blackgrass is beginning to show signs of dying back following the application of clethodim. It will soon be time to consider propyzamide to complete the grassweed herbicide control programme.

The addition of aminopyralid will boost broad-leaved weed control, especially for weeds such as mayweed, which seems to be in abundance in crops this season.

Phoma is beginning to appear and will soon reach threshold on susceptible varieties where a fungicide will be required. Light leaf spot control will also be a factor when considering fungicide choice.

East: Ben Pledger

Farmacy (Bedfordshire/Hertfordshire)

Cereal drilling is pretty much done in this area apart from later crops due to go in after beet or potatoes. The temptation was high to crack on earlier than planned from a blackgrass control point of view, with good seed-beds and the memory of the autumn of 1976 in the back of some minds.

Taking the opportunity to establish crops well made sense. Off the back of this, establishment has been very good.

Blackgrass is coming, however, in most places, pre-emergence chemistry is having an effect, although there is the need to top up with residual chemistry as soils get wetter. Flufenacet-based products will be used here, keeping in mind label restrictions from previous applications.

The warmer than usual weather for this time of year is seeing aphids colonise in crops, and the need to return to fields with an insecticide for BYDV. This can be combined with the residual herbicide top-up application.

Beans

Some growers have drilled winter beans already. Depth has been the key here, namely as deep as you can possibly get with the drill.

Wishing to make use of ideal drilling conditions has left the problem of time between drilling and emergence, and how late to time the pre-emergence herbicide of propyzamide and pendimethalin. This is to make sure it is as cool as possible for the propyzamide, and also allowing for a flush of weeds over the top, which can be taken out with glyphosate in the same pass.

A word of warning here – with soil temperatures as warm as they are, I’ve already seen beans drilled to 10cm (4in) deep emerging within 14 days. Don’t get caught out, as post-emergence weed control in the crop is limited and expensive.

Hopefully, temperatures are dropping off now, which should also give the opportunity to blow some cooler air through heaps of grain.

Store temperatures are still high in places, with grain going into store in the height of the summer at up to 40C. Hotspots have been cropping up, with remedial action needed where identified.

South: Tod Hunnisett

AICC (Sussex)

It has been a relatively kind autumn in this part of the country. Most farms are drilled up and sprayed into exceptional conditions.

Warm soils have meant fast emergence and many crops have outgrown anticipated slug damage without treatment. Having said this, others have suffered badly – my worst situations being after short-term grass for some reason.

Quite a few crops are showing an effect from the pre-emergence herbicides. I never worry too much about this in the autumn, it’s normally a sign that they’re going to work very well on the target weeds.

In the past, autumn conditions that have led to crop effect (ie, rapid emergence into warm soils) have often resulted in good establishment followed by good yields.

Forward OSR

Oilseed rape was drilled a bit later this year on account of the lack of moisture in August. However, crops that went into moisture, even later drilled, look like they were planted in July.

Once again, I don’t worry too much about this – a crop very forward at Christmas is a nice problem to have.

Even mid-September-drilled crops are big enough to wash your wellies at the end of October. Recommendations are going in for propyzamide to be applied when the soils cool down.

Winter beans are being drilled as I write, with most also having propyzamide as a pre-emergence spray.

Last year it worked exceptionally well, and with the recent rain, hopefully, it will do another good job this year. I dread to think what we will do if propyzamide disappears, so good stewardship is essential.

It’s a new outing for the active cinmethylin this year in wheat. So far, where I’ve used it pre-emergence, it seems to be doing a good job, particularly on ryegrass. I’m looking forward to when we can use it on barley (and maybe even OSR).