The wet autumn continues with barely a day without rain. As one of our agronomists points out, it is the first high slug pressure season since the loss of metaldehyde, and it is being felt.

Another challenge is weed control in winter beans. The reclassification of the pulse as a major crop saw the loss of any Extensions of Authorisations for Minor Use (EAMU), reducing product choice for growers.

See also: New wheat fungicide provides three-pronged attack

South

Iain Richards, Agrii (Oxfordshire)

Once again, a challenging autumn, and one bearing little resemblance to the last. However, land really wet at depth isn’t something we’ve never seen before.

Nor are huge slug problems, serious flea beetle pressures, or tight soils after a difficult harvest.

Combining delays meant we only got the most of our oilseed rape from the final week of August. With the double whammy of slugs and cabbage stem flea beetle (CSFB), it wasn’t pretty.

But careful nurturing means we haven’t lost a single field, and the vast majority of our crops are well-grown and even.

This is a clear testament to vigorous, fast-developing hybrids. They are directly drilled into long stubbles alongside a buckwheat, berseem clover and fenugreek companion mix, providing good early nutrition.

Daily inspections, timely pelleting, deterrents such as silicate and garlic, Nutri-Phite PGA and, in some cases, even an insecticide spray have all played their part.

We’ll only be able to tell how successful we’ve been next June. But, by sticking to sowing 50 seeds/sq m, we’ve got some sensible plant populations.

And even where they are down to just 20 plants/sq m, a great collar size bodes well for the strong, well-branched, hybrid development we’ve found is best able to cope with larvae.

Blackgrass pressure

The fact we’ve already applied clethodim to about half our crop speaks volumes for the pressure of blackgrass we’re seeing following the setback of last season.

As was considerable weed growth evident in the base of many cereals before harvest.

The wetness we’ve had since late July has meant a shorter gap than we’d like between our post-combining cultivation and wheat drilling.

It’s a result of harvesting delays, and with the soil as wet as it is down there, memories of 2012 mean we can’t risk holding off drilling much longer.

Seed-beds for the 50% of our wheat we’ve already drilled were very good, although the recent dry spell and temperatures of up to 24C have hardly been ideal for the pre-emergences.

How we will fare with the more challenging, heavier blackgrass ground we are just starting on is the big question.

Aided by rolling after cultivation to encourage it, the weed growth we’ve been able to glyphosate-off so far has been very heartening; in some cases, in two flushes without any further soil movement.

Slugs remain one of our biggest concerns. Truth be told, we could do with a little rain now to activate our pre-emergence herbicides, but it will bring them back with a vengeance.

Equally concerning are the number of aphids – both winged and first generation – we’re seeing in barley crops barely at leaf two.

Close cereal crop inspection and barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) alert app warnings will be especially important in a season which, unfortunately, looks unlikely to reward any non-insecticide approaches.

East

Ben Pledger, Farmacy (Bedfordshire/Hertfordshire)

Although there have been good early flushes of blackgrass on stubbles, those who have held off drilling winter cereals in my area have seen another good flush emerging on prepared land in the past few days.

After the recent rains, soil moisture in the top of the profile will see pre-emergence chemistry function better.

For those fields where blackgrass is emerging among already emerged wheat and barley, a top-up of flufenacet-based chemistry tank mixed with an insecticide for BYDV would give prolonged action against the weed.

Large populations of slugs have also made an appearance this autumn, particularly in fields following OSR.

The possibility that crops drilled after the recent rains may not get rolled, and the now wetter soils, will provide a favourable environment for them to move at ease between seeds.

Traps should be placed in crops to monitor slug numbers and, if present, an application of ferric phosphate pellets should be made.

Winter beans

Once winter cereals have been drilled, attention will turn to getting winter beans in the ground.

With temperatures in the first half of October being unseasonably warm, soil temperatures have not dropped as quickly as usual. This will cause a couple of issues.

The time from drilling to emergence will be relatively short, allowing less time in potentially catchy conditions to get the pre-emergence herbicide on.

If propyzamide is used, the warmer soils will reduce the half-life of the product, giving a shorter window of control.

With all EAMUs (bar those for seed crops) being removed from major crops, this now limits the number of products containing pendimethalin that can be applied to the crop, and negates straight pendimethalin products.

It is advisable to make sure the product you use has winter field beans on the product label.

North

David Martindale, Arable Alliance (Yorkshire)

The autumn drilling campaign slog continues with barely a day going by without rain.

It has been a real struggle, with many wishing drilling was finished yet facing the reality that there still remains quite a large area to sow.

Slugs, slugs and more slugs have loved the wet summer and autumn conditions. It is the first high slug pressure season since the loss of metaldehyde, and its loss is obvious in a year such as this.

OSR crops can almost be divided into a series of sub-crops, including the earliest sown, which are now ankle high.

They are looking tremendous compared to those sown in late September, which are just putting out their first true leaves.

Unfortunately, many crops failed to establish due to CSFB and/or slugs. Often it was slugs that were the deciding factor, with crops sown into chopped cereal straw proving a haven for them to do most of their damage.

Very early sown OSR crops look well, although larvae can be found in leaf petioles, so these crops could suffer in the coming months.

Sowing later, either through intention or redrilling, has again been the most successful option in most cases to have the least amount of adult CSFB damage.

Clethodim has recently been applied to control grassweeds such as blackgrass, with broad-leaved weed control having to take a back seat for now due to all the chaos associated in trying to get crops established.

Phoma has appeared early this year due to the wet conditions. In some situations it has already reached threshold, and required a fungicide spray for its control.

Drilling

Winter cereal drilling has been a stop-start affair. At least there has been plenty of moisture for the pre-emergence herbicides to work well, although their application has often been delayed due to poor weather.

Instead, they have often been applied early post-emergence and, where necessary, products and rates have been reduced due to label restrictions or for crop safety.

Unfortunately, the grassweed control in these fields has already been compromised.

Slugs have been very active in wheat crops following OSR. The warning signs were already there prior to drilling these fields because there were no OSR volunteers present due to slug feeding.

The recent warm conditions have also been favourable for aphids, which can now be seen in early sown cereals.

The use of BYDV models are helpful in terms of assessing the risk of virus infection, and whether an insecticide is required.

Winter bean drilling is now under way, and with such a reliance on pre-emergence herbicides for weed control, trying to achieve a good seed-bed is paramount.

The change in bean status to a major crop means EAMUs are no longer available, which has reduced herbicide choice.

However, the remaining herbicides are still likely to control most of the key weeds, albeit at a higher cost.

West

Neil Potts, Matford Arable (Devon)

At the time of writing there is very little to report on the winter cereal side of things. A lot of crops are now drilled. The vast majority are either just emerging, or not yet emerged.

Pre-emergence herbicides have been applied, and the next worry will be getting the BYDV programme off to a timely start.

There are still quite large numbers of bird cherry-oat aphids being caught at the Starcross site, which is usually a good indicator that there is a likely problem.

The winter OSR has generally established well with little or no CSFB problems; however, the turnip sawfly larvae are causing problems in places.

Early post-emergence herbicides have generally worked well, and rapeseed crops are going into the winter looking relatively clean.

Maize harvest

The maize crops are coming off as I write. There is a lot of wheat to go into the ground after the maize, but the harvest is progressing very slowly, partly due to the weather and partly due to the size of the crop.

Many crops are yielding 20% to 25% above the average, meaning that foragers are only able to crawl through the crops.

It is nice to finish the harvest period with a crop that is performing above, rather than below, average.

With quite a bit of wheat left to drill we could do with a dry seven to 10 days, but who knows what this period will bring.

The next headache will be finding enough spray windows to get some well-timed BYDV sprays onto the winter cereals.

There is a limited acreage of BYDV-tolerant Grouse in the ground, and it will be interesting to see how the genetic control option compares to the traditional pyrethroid insecticide for control of this damaging disease.

For all those left with crops to plant, good luck in the coming weeks.