Crop Watch – Farmers Weekly

Crops continued to be sown in great conditions right through October, which can be a challenging month. The combination of pre-and early post-emergence herbicides have done a great job on early weed control.

Brome would be our biggest challenge this far north and a trend to heavier pre-emergence mixes in winter barley crops showed up in the early stages.

These have since recovered, but unfortunately are necessary in the ever-continuing fight against brome.

Barleys have now started their chameleon gig, changing colour from a nice, lush green to yellow and back again. This usually results in a few concerned phone calls, but they will be fine and put this act to bed in the spring.

Mild conditions have meant most OSR crops have jumped. This has taken away some of the concern as they head into winter. Any patchy fields are now obvious and decisions about these struggling areas need to be made.

Spray windows

Propyzamide applications are ongoing when spray windows allow. Field conditions are the big driver and application windows are pushed as far as we dare, but, ultimately, we need to ensure we can travel. With blackgrass not a major issue, soil temperatures aren’t as critical.

Winter beans emerged very quickly, thanks to warm soils. Where later harvesting is feasible, they provide a great opportunity for effective grassweed management.

Volunteer beans tend to split opinion in the following wheat crop, and striking the balance can be tough. I try to gauge this as best as I can depending on the density of the volunteers. I think there’s something to be gained from the extra root structure and any additional nitrogen, but not if they will compete with the wheat crop.

With strong crops heading into the winter, our attention turns to fertiliser inputs. With the ever-increasing market volatility and prices changing on a regular basis, these decisions are not easy to make.

A drop in the P and K prices due to little movement over the past few months has resulted in, well, more stalemate. Rumours of a nitrogen price drop could result in the same situation.