GIVECEREALSTLC
Sickly cereals in need of tender, loving care
Tender loving care, rather than quick fixes, is the optimum
solution for struggling winter wheat and the spring barley
which many growers may not have sown for a while, says
one agronomist in Scotland. Andrew Blake reports
APPALLING weather has clearly hit English cereal producers, acknowledges Keith Dawson of Perth-based CSC CropCare. "But in Scotland we have been here before. In 1998 we sowed only 50% of our planned winter cereals and there was an extra 100,000ha of spring barley north of the Humber."
Judicious spending on conventional, well targeted inputs, not expensive unp-roven crop stimulants, should be the approach with backward winter wheat, Dr Dawson advises.
"Many growers forced into spring barley will regard it as a Cinderella crop. But markets, technology and varieties have changed, and for most English growers it makes sense to push it harder.
"The worst scenario is to go for malting quality and then not get it because the soil type is unsuitable."
In wheat, the wet harvest means fusarium is likely to be more important than eyespot, he notes. "A well-targeted dose of a mixture of strobilurin fungicide at around GS30 is very effective against it and may well account for some of the yield increases we see from increased canopies.
"After all the wet there will be many crops deficient in sulphur, manganese, copper and other trace elements. Id much rather spend my money on tissue analysis and sorting these problems out than on so-called stimulants. It is sure to be more rewarding."
GIVECEREALSTLC
• No quick fixes for winter crops.
• Target conventional inputs carefully.
• Beware barley seed rate pitfall.
• Watch out for ramularia syndrome.
All is not gloom for wheat growers forced into spring barley, says Keith Dawson. There is no magic cure for ailing wheats, but the outcome could still be satisfactory with a bit of tender, loving care, he says.