Crop Watch – Farmers Weekly
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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.
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 seedbeds 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 seedbeds.
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. Seedbed preparation has also been a contributor to the problems with some crops.
Anywhere that seedbeds 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.
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 seedbeds 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.
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