09 May 2013. A brief period of summer at the weekend helped winter cereals put on a spurt of growth and opened a few more flowers on oilseed rape crops. However, return to cooler conditions will probably slow growth again. High winds in the east raise the possibility of crop damage from "Fen blows" and forecast for continuing unsettled conditions across the country could delay important T1 fungicides on untreated wheat crops.

• Pollen beetle levels remain low.
• T1 for winter wheat crops.
• Keep monitoring backward crops of oilseed rape for pollen beetle.
• Flag leaf emerging in forward winter barley.
• Late flush of weeds in winter cereals.
• Sugar beet emergence problems

Bayer have a useful tool for predicting pollen beetle migration click here to view.

Winter Wheat

South. Sunshine and a run of warmer nights over the Bank Holiday weekend have stimulated growth with September and early October sown wheats beginning to develop quite rapidly. These crops now range between GS31-32 with leaf 3 often 2/3 to fully emerged on main shoots of Cordiale, Solstice and JB Diego, with leaf 2  also emerging. Tip of leaf 3 now emerging on main shoots of Claire, Scout and Grafton. Otherwise most later autumn sown crops are  now in early stem extension around GS 30-31 with the tip of leaf 3 starting to emerge. Crops sown in January/February are still at tillering. T1 spraying now underway on all crops that have leaf 3 2/3+ emerged.
T1 applications being based around Proline or Tracker on all earlier sown crops with Chlorothalonil added in to all mixes – more rust prone varieties & second wheats are also having Amistar included. Later sown crops having 60-75% dose of epoxiconazole + Chlorothalonil with Talius included on more mildew prone varieties.
Septoria tritici: September sown Cordiale and Scout are showing high levels of infection on leaf 5 and below, otherwise most wheats are only showing fairly low levels of infection on the lower leaves.
Weed control: all unsprayed fields requiring blackgrass herbicides have now been sprayed and so far control looks promising. Brome levels are much lower this year.

Eastern Counties. Majority of wheat is now at GS 31and even the poorer crops are catching up. Majority of crops have had a T1 fungicide and where this has been on for coming up to 3 weeks now planning a T2.
Mildew: trace levels.
Septoria tritici: trace levels on lower leaves.
Yellow rust: no new sightings
Eyespot: can find some eyespot.
Weed control: still to early to assess blackgrass control from spring applied herbicides. There is a lot of bindweed, knotgrass, fat hen and charlock coming through late.

East Midlands. Many crops now have leaf 3 emerging and T1 fungicides are either on or are about to be applied. However, crops still seem to lack vigour and with little new root growth inputs are being reduced. It is hard to justify the spend on SDHIs for T1 this year. Late sown crops still struggling to get beyond the tillering stage and appear more like spring wheat crops than winter.
Mildew: none seen
Septoria: Older leaves dying off and new green growth showing no major infection. T0 gone on better crops or septoria weak crops.
Yellow rust: none seen.
Eyespot: very low levels.
Weed control: in late drilled crops weed levels remain low and will be tackled at T1 – suspect if we get rain a flush of weeds will follow so not looking to go in too early.

West Midlands. All mid-September sown crops now have leaf two emerging. Pretty much all mid-October sown wheat in various stages of leaf 3 emerging to 2/3rds out with T1 going on from Monday just gone to Monday 13th May. Depending upon location rainfall over the last 10-14 days amounts to somewhere between 4mm-10mm but you wouldn't know it due to winds stripping moisture out all the time. Some tiller die back on lighter lands but raining again now so with luck these will recover.
All September sown wheat have received Avaitor as a T1. Tracker or Firefly going on the rest.
Opomyza: tiller death from yellow cereal fly larvae are more obvious this year than for some time.
Mildew: absent in most crops.
Septoria tritici: very evident on the forward crops, whatever variety, none on new leaves.
Yellow Rust: no fresh sightings.
Fusarium/Eyespot: symptoms have diminished in the dry conditions.
Weed control: herbicides applied three to four weeks ago now showing good control of broad leaved and grass weeds.

North East.  Crops range from  GS 30 - 33, final leaf 3 emerged and T1 treatments have started. Its been a warm and sunny week with an average temperature of 11.7 degrees.   However, it has been 56 days since last meaningful rain.
Mildew: none seen
Septoria tritici: active on lower leaves of some varieties but not moving up the crop.
Yellow rust: none seen.
Brown rust: none seen.
Wheat bulb fly: low levels in some crops.
Weed control: warmer weather bringing out early spring weeds.

Winter Oilseed Rape 

South. Many crops are now typically between green bud and early flower within the same field. Top-up doses to 200-220kg/ha have been applied to all stronger/more normal crops, while the most severely backward/grazed crops have had between 175-200kg/ha  applied depending on the extent  of crop recovery.
Sclerotinia: crops at yellow bud/early flower will have Proline + MBC mixes in next 7-10 days to provide sclerotinia protection.
Pollen beetle: up to 2-5 beetles per plant now in places, mainly on more backward crops.
Seed Weevil: first adults being found now in areas of flowering rape. It could be a bad year for weevil with the variable flowering and warmer ambient temperatures now that we are into May. Mavrik with sclerotinia sprays where required.

Eastern Counties. Best crops now uniformly in full flower but other crops are very patchy and only slowly starting to flower in places where the pigeon damage was less severe. Some very short spindly rape looking worse as other areas have grown away. All N now finished, concerned that some crops are short of N due to lack of moisture to take N into soil. Dry week, mainly warm and sunny but we did have frosts at night last week.
Light Leaf Spot: some applications being made for low levels of LLS in backward crops which received no autumn fungicides.
Sclerotinia: have applied or just about to apply first sclerotinia protection to crops in full flower. If it remains dry will re-consider plans for a second spray after 3 weeks.
Pollen beetle: levels have risen slightly to maybe 1 or 2 per plant in places but no treatment recommended at present.
Seed Weevil: seen in crop on warm, sunny day on Tuesday.

East Midlands. There are some good crops now in full flower but there are also backward ones still at the green to yellow bud stage. Like the wheat crops seem to lack of vigour in order to get going this year. One badly pigeon damage crop now forming side branches right at the base of the crop.
Pollen beetle: numbers remain low but have treated a few backward crops.
Sclerotinia: adopting a wait and see policy at the moment.
Weed control: control now complete.

West Midlands. Crops range from green bud to 30% flowers with Cubic, Troy and PR46W21 flowering well. Most crops now starting to flower to a lesser or greater extent but backward crops still struggling to develop into any size. Cooler conditions aren't helping.
Light leaf spot: no obvious signs yet.
Pigeons: still present but in fewer numbers.
Pollen beetle: still hard to find but treating some backward crops where numbers up to 2 - 3 per plant.
Sclerotinia: fungicides to go on at early to mid flowering.
Weed control: some late season herbicides seem to have caused some damage to crops delaying flowering and shortening them.

North East. Crops range from green bud to flowering. The forward crops pushing ahead well but some backward crops are struggling and dry weather causing some stress now on crops with poor rooting system.
Pigeons: becoming less of a problem.
Pollen beetle: odd beetle seen in crops at green bud, but levels much lower than previous years.
Light leaf spot: low levels only.
Weed control: post emergence programme worked well on blackgrass especially propyzamide with cold season.

Winter Barley

South: growth in some crops has accelerated rapidly in the last 7 days, with Cassia in particular now moving towards flag-leaf emergence. All crops have had T1 applications completed. Flag-leaf PGR’s will need applying on more forward crops in the next 7-10 days.
East: crops at GS 31. Some crops are very thick but there are still some that are thin and patchy. Disease levels remain low. Small cotyledon charlock, bindweed, knotgrass, sow thistles, fat hen and orache coming through late.
East Midlands: flag leaf emerging and awns not far behind. All disease levels remain low.
West Midlands: final leaf two emerging in most crops which are responding to the warm weather over the last week. Disease levels remain low.
North East: Growth stages are still behind benchmark times but they are catching up, most forward at flag leaf emergence. Very little disease present.

Sugar Beet

Crops with erratic establishment from March or early April drillings continue to be reported. Potential problems with seed are being investigated but it doesn’t seem to be confined to one variety. Seedlings seemed to have failed on their way through to the surface showing coiled growthand poor roots, others shrivelled soon after cracking through the pellet. These crops have very varied plant size and lack vigour, care will need to be taken when planning herbicide programmes.

On the more positive side there are April drilled fields, where there was plenty of moisture present in the seed bed, which have resulted in excellent establishment of uniform sized seedlings which are now at the 2 true leaf expanded stage. Unfortunately a few of the later drillings have suffered from patchy emergence due to dry soil at seed depth.

Herbicides applied to small weeds have worked well. 2^nd / 3^rd FAR applications have been made under good conditions. 2^nd Conventional sprays are just going on. If there was a delay in getting started on programmes at all last week weeds have romped away and some more aggressive treatments will be needed. There has been a large flush of black bindweed generally, cleavers are now appearing & v potatoes just beginning to show. Fat hen and orache have also emerged.