Temperatures have finally warmed up and crops are now growing away well.
Any trip onto a high vantage point at this time of year would normally be greeted by a patchwork of prominent yellow fields, this year it is a case of trying to spot any yellow fields at all!

I estimate that crops in flower, at the moment, make up only about 10% of the area originally drilled. These few flowering crops have just received their first fungicide to protect against sclerotinia. Most of the remaining crop is slowly limping towards flowering and will have a severely reduced yield potential. Fortunately pollen beetle numbers have been very low and no crops have justified treatment yet.

Winter barley is at growth stage 30/31 and has just received its T1 spray based on a prothiconazole mix. Most fields were clean; very few required any herbicide treatment.

Winter wheat is some way behind. The target for the T1 application is final leaf 3, and prior to the bank holiday weekend it was leaf 4 that was emerging on even the most forward crops. This will now change quickly and T1 applications will commence probably around the 10th May, some 3 weeks later than normal.