West: Big problem with volunteer OSR
Justin Hayward once sang: “my life will be forever autumn” and this is certainly how things feel in the South West at the moment. Crop growth has carried on unhindered and early November drilled...
View ArticleWest: Autumn, season of mists and rampant oilseed rape
The mild, damp weather continues, with heavy mists this week reducing the opportunities for spray applications onto anything like dry leaves. We shouldn’t be lulled into a false sense of security; last...
View ArticleWest: Mild weather helps late drilled crops
The unusually mild weather throughout November has been a great help to all the late drilled crops in the area. With a late maize harvest there has been a significant acreage of wheat planted later...
View ArticleSouth: Soil temperatures finally dropping
A quick glance at the calendar tells me it is December this week, hard to believe after the mild weather we have had recently. Rape crops continue to race away and some are carrying huge canopies going...
View ArticleEast: Decisions still to be made on blackgrass herbicides
Rain in early November and some perfect spraying conditions subsequently have resulted in rapid blackgrass emergence in wheats and a considerable amount of Atlantis/Horus (iodosulfuron + mesosulfuron)...
View ArticleWest: Crops all over the place in south-west
Crops are all over the place in terms of growth stage and canopy size this year. The early drilled crops are carrying very large canopies and a lot of foliar disease, whilst some of the later drilled...
View ArticleEast: Soil nitrogen levels variable
Standard deep nitrogen coring, to measure soil mineral nitrogen (SMN), is producing some highly variable results. This is not surprising if you consider the factors that influence SMN levels in...
View ArticleWest: Drought or no drought?
Drought seems to be the in topic in both the farming and general media at the moment. Indeed, there are areas of the southwest that are dry, particularly in the east of the region, but in Mid and North...
View ArticleEast: Yellow rust explosion
Rain and some warmer days in the second week of March have encouraged an explosion of yellow rust. Unsurprisingly, Oakley is the main culprit but numerous other varieties, especially in later drilled...
View ArticleSouth: Concern over late flush of broad-leaved weeds
Crops are trying to catch up to where where we would expect them to be in a “normal” year, but there is still huge variation. At the time of writing (13 May) most winter barley has leaf two emerging...
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