June is rapidly approaching, and the year seems to be racing on.

Our winter crops have certainly improved in the past few weeks and 35mm of rain in May so far has helped no end. This should set them up nicely for the business end of the growth stages.

The spring crops have also changed overnight after a significant precipitation event.

See also: Farmer Focus: I hope weather forecasters are wrong

About the author

Jack Hopkins

Arable Farmer Focus writer

Jack Hopkins is farm manager on a 730ha AHDB Monitor Farm in north Herefordshire on predominantly silty clay loam soils. Cropping includes wheat, barley, oilseed rape, spring oats and peas, plus grassland that supports a flock of 1,000 ewes and 25 pedigree Hereford cattle.

Read more articles by Jack Hopkins

The nitrogen strategy on the wheat has been one of the biggest challenges this year – not only how much to put on, but also the timing of when it’s applied to ensure maximum efficiency.

This has meant dashing out ahead of any predicted rain event (which were few and far between) to ensure the nitrogen was washed in and utilised.

Currently, the winter wheat (depending on its estimated potential) has received 130kg/ha of applied nitrogen and the plan is to top it up with 20 litres/ha of foliar nitrogen at T2.

This will be the first year we have done this with the cereals, but we have had positive results over the past few years using it on oilseed rape. This, in theory, will take us to 160kg/ha of nitrogen applied.

Based on the average price of purchased nitrogen, average price of wheat sales and our long-term average wheat yield, this is where we needed to be.

The approach to disease management has been easier to justify this year, with as little as 0.3t/ha in yield response giving a return on investment.

Even though the disease pressure was low at T1 due to the dry conditions, SDHI chemistry was used.

This will be backed up now at T2, especially as we are experiencing some wetter conditions.

A few tramline trials with nitrogen rates and fungicide applications should provide interesting learning with price of commodities at current levels.

Our next focus will be on silage-making and establishing our Countryside Stewardship areas – ­­hopefully after a good stale seed-bed.

Fingers crossed for the right amount of rain for everyone and a nice bit of sunshine to set us up for a good harvest.