Crop Watch: Wheat fungicide plans and maize drilling debate – Farmers Weekly

At the end of my last Crop Watch report I was hoping for a quiet March weather wise, so I guess it was always going to be a case of careful what you wish for.

At home in east Devon, I’ve recorded 2mm of rain in the past four weeks, and while some parts of Devon and Cornwall have recorded more, overall, it has been a dry, relatively cold month.

On the plus side it’s been fantastic to be able to get on the ground and manage crops as they need to be.

The benefits of early nitrogen application in February are plain to see with crops having responded well and developing with promise. Some growers have had the misfortune of experiencing delayed fertiliser deliveries.

In some cases, fertiliser ordered last autumn for January delivery, is only now arriving on farm, which has caused a lot of unnecessary frustration and stress for all concerned and its only the dry conditions that have prevented crops from really suffering.

Second applications of fertiliser are now going on winter barley and wheat crops, while most T0 applications have been applied to the barley crops.

Quite a number of those barley T0 applications have received growth promoters such as Route to try to trigger improved root development which could prove invaluable in what looks like being a dry spring.

Winter wheat crops will receive T0s over the next 10 days, before attention turns back to barley that will receive a T1 application mid-April as it hits stem extension.

The biggest challenge will be how much growth regulator to use on the barleys, with only the benefit of hindsight letting you know if you made the correct decision in a dry period.

Disease is evident in both barley and wheat crops, but the dry month and timely T0 applications have helped hold those levels.

Spring barley crops are being drilled, and some are now emerging and looking well. Nearly all have had fertiliser and some have had pre-emergence herbicides, too.

The dry conditions have also started the debate on when to drill maize crops.

Some maize has been drilled under plastic already and with the forecast set to be dry for the next 10 days there could be quite an acreage of maize drilled in mid-April this year.

Overall, the next month will be important in determining the outcome of established and emerging crops and I’m not wishing for anything on the weather front.