Crop Watch: Time running out for spring barley drilling? – Farmers Weekly

With recent drying winds, the ground had dried sufficiently to allow spring drilling on heavier land.

It is tempting, especially this year, to get as much drilled as possible to recoup for reduced acreages drilled back in the autumn.

However, thought needs to be put in to make sure that what is being drilled at the moment will actually turn a profit.

It may feel like the right thing to establish crops to soothe the mind, but it they are only going to make a loss is this the right thing to do?

Is this spring the right time to fallow some land, tackle some blackgrass, improve drainage and set the land up for a good entry into an autumn-drilled crop?

Also, along this line of thinking now is the time to identify thinner areas of autumn-drilled crops where further spend on these areas throughout the spring will lead to these areas making a loss.

Better to halt inputs on these areas now and again have a look at remediating soil structure and reducing weed burdens.

Septoria tritici can be found in pretty much every field of wheat irrespective of variety and drilling date.

With the forecast drier weather it can be easy to belittle the level of infection, even in crops with a good disease rating for it.

With a good range of different active ingredients to control the disease on the market this spring, ensure that your T1 fungicide to protect leaf 3 includes control of septoria so that a fire engine approach isn’t needed if the disease starts moving up the crop.

Fluxapyroxad has been the well-established go to molecule here, but with others such as mefentrifluconazole, fenpicoxamid and isoflucipram relatively new on the scene, mixing up actives within the fungicide programme will help guard against disease resistance.