The dry spell has seen good progress with drilling, fertiliser and spraying – a huge contrast to last spring.

It is also helping to reduce disease pressure after a wet winter, although some yellow rust is being seen in susceptible varieties.

Farmers are also being warned of the gout fly risk to tillers, with high levels being reported in some areas.

See also: Suffolk wheat grower goes for broad-spectrum disease control at T1

West

Ben Allard – Pearce Seeds (Dorset, Wilts and Somerset)

As I begin my first Crop Watch of the spring, I’m pleased to start on a positive note; it’s been dry!

Since the start of the month, Mother Nature in the West has turned the taps off, allowing significant progress with the spring drilling campaign.

The majority of my spring barley, wheat, and beans are now in the ground, sown into fantastic seed-beds across a range of soil types.

While the heavier soils needed more time to dry out, we have been fortunate with the weather, allowing us to give the heavier clay soils the time needed to prepare a good seed-bed.

I believe the past few years has been a case of getting the seed in the ground before it pours with rain, rather than working the soil when conditions are right to get a good seed-bed and establishment.

Thankfully, it’s the latter which we have had this year.

Over the past few weeks, attention has turned to grassweed control, with applications of Atlantis (iodosulfuron + mesosulfuron) and Pacifica Plus (iodosulfuron + mesosulfuron + amidosulfuron) being lined up to target blackgrass and Italian ryegrass populations.

However, cold days and frosty mornings have once again made application timing challenging this season.

Coming out of winter and into spring, where autumn herbicide (pre- or post-emergence) applications have been made, they have generally performed very well.

This reinforces the point I always stress to my customers: where possible, always apply an autumn herbicide rather than waiting until spring, especially on dirty or unknown land, as avoidance often puts greater pressure on spring applications.

Septoria

Despite the wet winter, septoria pressure is moderate and can be found on the lower dying leaves.

However, newly emerging leaves are looking clean, helped by this recent dry spell. Palladium and Typhoon wheats are certainly looking impressive and full of potential.

The season is now in full swing, with T0 applications scheduled for the coming weeks in October-drilled crops.

My approach again this year is to encourage root growth and development, ensuring plants become well-established as the season progresses.

Applications of Moddus/Sonis (trinexapac) plant growth regulator (PGR) and biostimulants/nutrients will support this.

Disease wise, with septoria being my main concern, I will be using Iodus (laminarin), which acts as an elicitor, triggering the plant’s natural defences against septoria.

Over the past few years, I’ve seen good results using elicitors, so I will be relying on Iodus as my go-to T0 product for septoria control again this season.

Oilseed rape is looking good so far, surprising considering the winter we’ve had.

Disease pressure is low, Kerb (propyzamide) and autumn broad-leaved weed herbicide applications have performed well. Despite the cold weather, the crop has been slowly progressing.

As I assess OSR plants, my focus now turns to stem extension nutrition and fungicides to maintain the strong potential of these crops.

As with cereals, I also take sap or tissue samples of my OSR to identify any nutritional deficiencies. While crops may appear healthy on the outside, any major nutrient deficiency occurring within the plant may only become visible once the damage has already been done.

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South

Neil Harper – Agrii (Kent)

In a change to recent years, the spring has started well, and we have some promising crops to sink our teeth into. Our earlier drilled wheats are getting their T0 fungicide if they haven’t already had it.

Some brown rust was seen on Crusoe coming out of the winter, but the cold snap at the beginning of the month damped this down.

However, it’s in these crops, ready to come again, so we are monitoring them closely.

Yellow rust has started to arrive in certain varieties, which will need early management to protect newly emerging leaves and ensure we don’t end up chasing it all season.

In this situation, crops will receive a tebuconazole at T0 for a quick knockdown, and we may consider adding a strobilurin for longer-lasting control, although that limits our options later in the season.

Grassweed pressure in winter cereals has been lower than expected, where good pre-emergence chemistry was applied.

Some brome and blackgrass are now coming through, so top-ups have gone on.

We have been picking the best days to ensure the weeds are actively growing and the application is spot on while still being wary about the colder nights, especially for pyroxsulam-containing products.

Gout fly threat

High levels of gout fly are reported in some areas, and where this is a risk, there has been a focus on looking after the tillers with early nutrition, rolling and biostimulants.

Spring drilling began on the lighter ground and anything over chalk in mid-February, with the rest mostly drilling in mid-March.

Seed-beds on heavier land have been challenging. It was dry on top, but still wet underneath, leaving a tricky decision about whether to pull up the land to dry it out and risk not getting onto it swiftly enough.

Patience has been needed because the right conditions are more important than the drilling date.

We have been quick to get nutrition onto newly drilled crops, and the earliest drilled spring barley is receiving its final nitrogen.

Pre-emergence herbicides have also gone on promptly, especially for spring beans.

In this case, Emerger (aclonifen) has been a welcome addition to bolster grassweed control.  

Oilseed rape has given us the usual roller-coaster ride. We have not seen pigeon pressure like we had this winter in a long time.

People have lost crops to them, but fortunately this isn’t the case for us. However, it has significantly knocked them back and acted as a PGR in many situations.

We have been trying to feed oilseed rape to get it going, build green area and set it up for the season.

This has involved getting on with nitrogen as soon as the ground travels and focusing on micronutrition to help roots in cold, wet soil.

Combinations of boron, molybdenum, manganese and magnesium have been mixed with green bud sprays, adding a PGR and fungicide where it is needed.

It is a welcome change to be able to get crops moving in a positive direction this early in the season, and if it continues in this way, we could be well through the spring workload in April. We will see.

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East

Harriet Bateman – Prime Agriculture/AICC (Norfolk, Cambs and Lincs)

As April approaches, growers have been able to press on and most are caught up with critical jobs.

Crops are generally looking well; although a gentle rain would be welcome to help establishment of spring-drilled crops and uptake of recently applied nutrition.

Nearly all of the spring cereals are now in the ground and all the first nitrogen is on the winter wheat, with some growers now applying the second application.

Sugar beet drilling has commenced with some growers already having completed their drilling and others making very good progress.

Seed-beds should have been sprayed off in good time, especially where there has been cover crops previously.

My further advice would be to ensure cultivations allow the seed to go into adequate depth and moisture.

Some growers will look to apply a pre-emergence spray of metamitron and/or ethofumasate, but this will depend on the weed burden and soil moisture.

If it continues to stay dry, growers may choose to wait and start the herbicide programme at early post-emergence of the crop.

Sugar beet nutrition

When it comes to nitrogen, most will look to put half their requirement on immediately post drilling and then come back when the crop is at 2 true leaves.

We hope for the crop to emerge and get away quickly so it’s healthy and has a good canopy to capture as much sunlight as possible and quickly reach the crucial 12-leaf stage where they become resistant to virus yellows.

Early drilled and wheat varieties that are susceptible to rust will soon need a T0 application.

Some yellow rust has been spotted in Zyatt, so an application of some tebuconazole and growth regulators will be imminent.

Winter barleys are nearly ready for their T0 application along with some top-up herbicides to control broad-leaved weeds and any surviving wild oats.

Trace elements like manganese are also being applied, in some instances for the second time, for example on lighter soils and soils with a high organic matter content.

Oilseed rape crops generally look OK where they established well. The impact of cabbage stem flea beetle is lower this season, and the main pest seems to be pigeons.

Some light leaf spot is being noted, so a fungicide application at stem extension would be appropriate and it is also a good time to assess if plant growth regulator is needed as well as any micronutrients such as boron.

Potato planting is also under way on lighter land where workload is high and growers want to make the most of the current weather conditions.