7 October 2016. A dry week for most has allowed winter cereal drilling to continue apace. Concern over dry conditions in the East and reports of some oilseed rape crops failing and uneven emergence in cereals.

More Gout fly in Southern crops.
Blackgrass emerging.
Wheat drilling continues apace.
Slugs still active.
Flea Beetle some crop loss in east midlands.

Winter Wheat

South. Still making excellent progress with drilling and now around 80-90% of crops in the ground. Earliest sown (15th – 20th Sept) fields of Lili/Claire are now at 2-3 leaves – farms now holding off from drilling worst blackgrass fields until towards next week. Weather still looks reasonably settled for next 7-10 days here in the South. Soils & seedbeds are still generally moist below the surface following 10-15mm rain last Saturday, and most seedbeds are generally excellent following rolling & are providing an ideal start to pre-em herbicide programmes.
Slugs: rapid emergence and largely dry conditions mean that surface grazing on emerged crops has todate been minimal.
Gout Fly: can again find eggs on earliest emerged wheats in last 7-10 days (warm & calm days have really favoured adult activity recently)
Blackgrass: some useful flushes just appearing now in some stale seedbeds. Pre-emergence stacks appear to be providing good levels of control already on earlier sown fields – appears to be a large flush of blackgrass emerging along with crops in seedbank hotspots. Getting concerned that control levels may struggle for crops recently drilled unless rain occurs next week, as easterly wind is really drying out surface of seedbeds.

Eastern Counties. Suffolk wheats starting to emerge. Only non blackgrass fields with first wheat drilled into the dust so far in Essex, none emerged. East of Ipswich and Chelmsford is still very dry. North of Ipswich nicely moist with recent rain again.
Slugs: no damage seen.
Blackgrass: none yet in Essex, very occasional one starting to show in Suffolk. Liberator, Crystal are the main pre-ems going on as well as Avadex where needed.

East Midlands. Early drilled wheat at GS 11-12. Most have heeded blackgrass advice of delayed drilling and drilling this week. Sticky in some places after 17 mm rain last Saturday but generally conditions good.
Slugs: massive issues after oilseed rape particularly in the east of the region.
Blackgrass: generally reports of not a lot showing in stale seedbeds.

West Midlands. Drilling carrying on apace, maize harvest has started so wheat now being drilled on these fields. Farms with just wheat, rape and barley are now drilled up or will be by end of next week. Most forward crops have a tiller, crops still emerging within 7-10 days of drilling. Dry weather has arrived and apparently set to continue into next week, ground drying rapidly this week with sun and windy conditions.
Slugs: annoying amounts of slug grazing on wheat after rape but still mainly patching rather than field scale.
Blackgrass: becoming more of a problem in the region and looks as though we are importing ALS resistant blackgrass in straw used for carrots. Advice is to avoid drilling for as long as possible and consider Liberator + Defy + Hurricane as a pre/peri emergence control.

North East. Crops range from being drilled to GS 11. Less than 1mm of rain over the last week and soils are drying leading to uneven germination in many fields. Concern of effectiveness of pre-emergents in dry conditions.
Slugs: very low activity.
Blackgrass: just starting to emerge.

Winter Oilseed Rape 

South. Crops range from 2-7 true leaves – 75% of crops are now around 3-4 true leaves. Main varieties being grown are Amalie, Campus, Picto, Elgar, Flamingo, Barbados + some Mendel on club root fields. Most min-tilled crops have had 30 kg/ha N applied to seedbeds.
Flea beetle: shot holing of leaves has fortunately remained minimal in most crops todate.
Phoma: found a few leaf spots in a crop of Campus this week otherwise none seen todate.
Slugs: most crops now beyond the point where slug grazing will be too problematic – rapid growth in ongoing mild & relatively dry conditions is helping.
Turnip Sawfly: first larvae seen last week.
Blackgrass: germination is well underway now, though where 750gms Metazachlor has been applied this appears to be providing 30-50% control. Fields with heavy populations are having Centurion Max applied.
Volunteer barley: large flush in min-tilled crops after spring barley in particular. Falcon (0.4-0.6lt/ha) been applied.

Eastern Counties. From not emerged to just emerging to 8 true leaves. Meagre rain has allowed a little more emergence but not enough. Highly likely most will be a write off except on two farms. Now confirmed.
Flea beetle: small and patchy crops generally all getting hammered. Where enough plants have emerged, Hallmark at 75ml/ha giving from average to poor control of flea beetle.
Slugs: very low levels.
Blackgrass: none emerged yet.

East Midlands. Forward crops at 4-5 leaf with later drilled crops at 2 leaf and generally all looking well.
Phoma: none seen yet.
Club root: more incidence of clubroot reported with one whole field problem reported in Warwickshire. Concern over catch/cover crops with brassicae in – are they breeding a problem for rape in the future re club root and advising clients to steer clear of brassicae cover crops, especially with mild Septembers and Octobers.
Flea beetle: active in later crops again. Lambda spray max of two applications.
Slugs: still active on later crops but forward crops now getting away from them.
Blackgrass: not sure why dormant blackgrass which doesn't show in stale seedbeds will explode in rape crops? Centurion Max going on as blackgrass reach 2-3 leaves but some temptation from farmers to hold off until more emerges, but forward blackgrass will then be tillering – as usual a compromise situation. Other weed: lots of hedge mustard this time.

West Midlands. No change, early sown crops romping away, late sown crops slow to get going.
Phoma: trace levels only.
Club root: one farm has already found club root on mid August sown rape on land that has been in oilseed rape production for the last 30 years.
Flea beetle: very very low, most damage being seen on the late sown crops.
Aphids: only found cereal aphids so far no peach potato aphids found.
Slugs: keeping a very close eye on crops that are still only 1-2 true leaf.
Blackgrass: emerging on the earlier sown crops - Centurion Max applications as of mid/end of next week.

North East. Crops range from one to 6 leaf. Good growing conditions.
Flea beetle: less activity this week but occasional hot spots still seen.
Slugs: some problem areas in some fields, control achieved. Many crops moving ahead of slug risk
Blackgrass: many blackgrass plants germinated to date. Sprays for blackgrass control underway. 

Winter Barley.

South.  All winter barley fields have now been drilled, with earliest sown crops now at 1 leaf.
Eastern. From just drilled to just emerging.
West Midlands. Roughly 75% of winter barley now in, earliest crops are now at 2 true leaf.
East Midlands. Forward crops at around GS11-12 and look well.
North East.  Drilling has started but not many fields drilled to date early sown crops now at 1-2 leaf. Cassia, Bamboo, Glacier,Volume are the main varieties.