Our accidental barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) trial is taking shape, courtesy of yours truly running out of winter barley seed last autumn with an acre to go.

We had to pop up to our kind neighbours for some California seed to finish the field.

As we now grow BYDV-tolerant varieties, crops do not get an insecticide. It will be interesting to see how the accidental acre fairs against the tolerant variety in our high-pressure area.

See also: Why cutting N fertiliser is a bigger challenge this season

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Richard Harris

Richard Harris manages his family farm in partnership with his father in south Devon. The farm grows wheat, barley, linseed, grass and cover crops, with a small pick-your-own pumpkin patch.

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However, stunted patches are beginning to appear, showing the value of a dreaded insecticide even on a very small area.

Time will tell if this is true BYDV or just winter barley doing what winter barley can do in the early spring and not look very special until some warm April rain.

There are some perks of running out of seed, after all.

Talking of trials, we have a few going on this season, mainly based around nitrogen.

We’re running a few tramline trials of a slower release nitrogen and a bacteria-based nitrogen fixation product – fairly exciting elements to be looking at in this ever-changing sector.

I’m going to give clover understoreys a go this spring. We’ll trial a few seed rates of white clover with spring linseed to see if we can establish it successfully while controlling broad-leaf weeds and comparing its effect on linseed yield.

If we succeed, it will stay during the autumn and we will direct-drill the wheat into what’s left, giving it a low rate of glyphosate pre-drilling to knock back the weeds.

Fertility exchange with the winter wheat and a cheque from the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme would be good.

We are waiting for the weather to dry up before the second application of urea and polysulphate to winter wheat and barley fields.

Both crops have visibly benefited from the first dose of 35kg/ha in February. Conditions were cold, but the crops have picked up and are now looking good.

The barley is hungrier than the wheat, so will get a few kilos more to push it along. We aim to keep below a maximum dose of 50kg/ha to reduce flooding the plant with nitrate and adding disease pressure risks.