It certainly hasn’t been a very promising start to the autumn. About 200mm of rain in five weeks has removed any worries we might have had about a drought. The saving grace has been that it has fallen onto generally bone-dry soils that are in pretty good structural shape, so, for the most part, the water is draining away quite quickly and it’s surprising how well the fields are walking.

Late harvested crops and inappropriate weather have meant that many oilseed rape crops were quite late going in, and some wet soils have been extremely slow to germinate. Rape at cotyledon stage is at its most vulnerable to all kinds of pests. It always amuses me – and somewhat frustrates me – that we expend limitless amounts of worry, energy and money on flea beetle and slugs, yet 20 partridges can chomp their way across about 40 acres of cotyledon OSR in an evening. What does survive will have to be monitored closely for phoma leaf spot this autumn. Small, late-drilled plants will be far more vulnerable to damage if phoma comes in early.

The autumn conditions have allowed a wonderful flush of volunteers and grassweeds. My general rule of thumb is that if it is green before cultivating, spray it before cultivating. Moving green ground without spraying with glyphosate is a bit like painting a tractor without washing the dirt off first. If oilseed rape stubbles are not green – go and have a close look at it – the chances are the ground is heaving with slugs.

The moisture should help any planned pre-emergence herbicide strategies. But don’t forget that moisture is not the only contributing factor to effective weed control – good seed-beds and good spray coverage also make a difference. To that end, Syngenta’s excellent work on spray coverage and nozzle technology is well worth investigating and taking note of.