East: Rain is welcome, as long as it knows when to stop
The countryside looks very different to last year. Oilseed rape crops have established well. Cereal seed-beds are very good and to date the slug pressure has been low. After the 39 mm of rain that fell over last weekend the slug situation will need to be monitored carefully.
There is still a considerably acreage of wheat to be drilled, the vast majority of the undrilled cereal area is on high pressure blackgrass land that is in a stale seed-bed form. The recent rains will certainly have aided the blackgrass chit, but let’s hope for a weather window within the next six weeks to get these fields drilled and sprayed. One consideration for stale seed-beds is glyphosate use. If the seed-beds are being sprayed off regularly, check the glyphosate product allows for multiple applications and make sure you do not exceed the total dose allowed.
Recently applied residual cereal herbicides are likely to work well now we have moisture. With the heavy rain events we are now getting we will need to be careful of cereal herbicide choice and drilling depth.
Winter barley crops that have not received a herbicide will have to be top priority as far as spraying goes. With the limited number of contact graminicides available a pre-emergence or very early post-emergence residual herbicide is a must. This is even more vital given the fact that hybrid barley crops are now being grown on bad blackgrass land.
Aphid numbers are high this year. The first insecticides will be required soon after cereal crop emergence if the seed has not been treated with clothianidin. We should make full use of this early insecticide timing to add another herbicide to fields with a known blackgrass  problem.
Oilseed rape crops look well, with most crops having at least true leaves, and the forward crops have 6 true leaves. The new contact graminicide containing clethodim is looking promising, with early results showing good control of blackgrass. The recent rains will enable us to bring carbetamide into the grassweed program. An early low dose is a very useful way of suppressing blackgrass. A carbetamide application could be combined with a compatible fungicide. The Rothamsted Research – predicted phoma forecast dates are rapidly approaching. Rape crops have again responded well to recent nutrient applications.
Sugar beet lifting is progressing well, with very respectable sugar levels and yields. After establishment issues earlier in the year it is good to see weed free fields that are yielding better than expected.
