2 May 2014. Flag leaves in winter wheat are making a record early appearance this year. The earliest record we have from trials data is for full flag leaf, GS 39 on 17 May, this was a crop of September sown Glasgow at Andover, Hants in 2005. Septoria remains the main threat particularly after recent heavy rain showers. SDHI shortages are causing some concern. Winter oilseed rape is at mid-flowering for most with some earlier crops begining to turn green again. Seed weevil numbers are building in southern crops. Winter barley disease levels remain low as crops move towards awn emergence.

• Seed weevil numbers building in South
• T2 fungicides planned
• Sclerotinia - second sprays
• Yellow rust where no T0 applied
• Slugs active in wheat crops
• Wild oats emerging
• Awns emerging in winter barley
• Flag leaf on forward wheat
• Sugar beet patchy emergence in late sown crops

Earliest winter wheat flag leaf (GS37) dates from previous crop reports, these are all from southern crops...

2014 - 02 May
2013 - 20 May
2012 - 17 May
2011 - 06 May
2010 - 21 May
2009 - 07 May
2008 - 09 May
2007 - 04 May
2006 - 08 May
2005 - 04 May

Winter Wheat

South. September and early October sown crops of Gallant, Solstice, and Cordiale now have Flag-leaf 25-75% emerged on main shoots, with flag-leaf up to fully emerged in some early sown crops of Gallant. Claire, Scout, Leeds and Diego are around 10 days behind developmentally, with leaf 2 around 1/3 to 2/3 emerged. Some very wet tramlines again following around 75mm of rain in the last 10 days or so! Needs to stop raining soon otherwise a repeat of travelling conditions of 2012 looks likely to be repeated as water tables are still very high.
Brown rust: generally only low levels detectable at present.
Yellow rust: none seen since T0 applications were made.
Mildew: slight increase this week as crops respond to applied N and canopies thicken up
Septoria: recent rain splash events now mean that Septoria will be actively moving between leaf layers, as earlier sown crops that have the flag leaf emerging now, could be vulnerable to infection for up 2 weeks until emergence is complete. May need to consider T1.5 holding sprays or even a bridging spray between T2 and T3 if ear emergence is slow.
Eyespot: wet soil conditions and frequent rain events are increasing the frequency of stem based browning symptoms and clear eyespot lesions can be readily found on the more susceptible varieties (Cordiale, Solstice and Gallant), particularly on heavier soils.
Aphids: despite generally mild winter conditions no adults have been found to date. No signs of BYDV showing up yet either.
Weed control: some surviving patches of blackgrass in a few areas that will be sprayed-off with Roundup once it is clearly visible.

Eastern Counties. Crops at GS33 onward up to flag leaf emerging on some forward crops. Flag leaf at 2cm emerged on 1 May in forward Santiago. Septoria in the wetter regions is exploding. On some northerly farms where T0 did not go on due to the weather and yellow rust is a real problem. My wellies turned yellow in some Viscount and Santiago.
Yellow rust: only found where a T0 did not go on.
Brown rust: trace levels.
Mildew: trace levels.
Eyespot: not significant.
Septoria: septoria pressure high where farmers did not use SDHI at T1 these farms are being lined up for a hefty SDHI mix at T2.
Weed control: Atlantis has worked really well though on most blackgrass and wild oats.

East Midlands. Forward crops at flag leaf emerging with many crops at leaf 2 fully emerged and later crops at GS 32/32. Field conditions good and weather has been favourable with few showers. A few forward crops to get T2 in week or so as flag emerging now – earliest I have ever done it! We look about 10 days ahead of normal.
Slugs: high numbers in some crops with heavy grazing of leaf 4 and 5.
Yellow rust: now under control from T1 sprays
Brown rust: none seen.
Septoria: leaves 3-5 generally clean with a bit on leaf 5 but leaf 3 and 4 clean so far.
Mildew: levels continue to be low.
Eyespot: levels remain variable but still generally lowish with just a few hot spots.
Weed control: Blackgrass ears now starting to emerge. Flushes of bindweed to get Ally+Starane or equivalent at flag on the odd field.

West Midlands. Earky September swon wheat all has flag leaf emerging (anywhere from just poking out to 30% out) quite deceptive on short versus tall crops as some tall crops just poking the flag leaf out and some short crops are the opposite (eg Grafton ). Grafton doing its normal thing and speeding up to get to harvest! T2 will be starting on Tuesday 6th May at the earliest and the balance of early crops down for Friday 9th May.
Slugs: shredding wheat after rape all the way up to final leaf emerged, not sure which is worse the shredding or the septoria!
Yellow rust: no new infection seen.
Brown rust: none seen.
Septoria: w orst infections seen for some time. Early sown crops have lost leaf 5 with leaf 4 either gone or 15-50% infected, with leaf 3 tips also showing septoria.
Mildew: very little seen..
Eyespot: huge range of incidence ranging from only a few percent up to 35% of tillers.
Weed control: more cleavers have emerged along with groundsel and volunteer oilseed rape, some fields still very low cleavers and small.

North East. Crops range between GS 32-33 with most at GS32. T1 fungicide treatments are now mostly completed in good conditions.
Yellow rust: controlled by T0 fungicides.
Brown rust: none seen.
Mildew: none seen.
Septoria: present in many crops.
Eyespot: developing in a few crops, sharp eyespot seen.
Take-all: confirmed from lab test, on crop seed treated for take-all. This is an early sighting.
Weed control: Polygonum weeds, charlock, Wild Oats and other spring weeds starting to emerge.

Winter Oilseed Rape 

Seed Weevil importance - Larvae feeding in the pods can damage up to a quarter of the developing seeds and where a high percentage of pods have been affected this can equate to an overall yield loss of 5 - 10 %, however additional yield losses may result from Brassica pod midge which can exploit feeding damage and egg laying scars to deposit their eggs.
Threshold ADAS thresholds are 0.5 weevils / plant in northern Britain and 1 weevil / plant elsewhere. Source Bayer Pest Spotter

South. All crops now typically at mid to late flowering, with only about 25% flower left on main raceme of Alienor and Trinity now.
Seed weevil: beginning to find increasing numbers of adults in many crops. Now including Mavrik with mid-flowering fungicides to control adults and reduce risk of pod-midge issues.
Sclerotinia:  with soil temperatures again around 9-10’C this week, coupled with some milder nights (+7’C) and lots of showery rain, conditions have been very conducive to sclerotinia infection – all crops have had early to mid-flowering spray applied before Easter with follow-up applications scheduled for 14-21 days later.

Eastern Counties. Crops look remarkably well, after beginning stem extension early with little branching they have now branched well and have enjoyed a good flowering period. The fungicide/ growth regulator applications made at green / yellow bud seem to have evened the flowering and height of the crops which now look very uniform.
Light leaf spot: no recent infections.
Seed weevil: difficult to find.
Sclerotinia: all crops have received one flowering fungicide spray – we are now trying to decide whether or not to apply a second as the two week interval (or more) is up and most crops are still in full flower -although some of the earlier ones are just going out of flower. It has been very dry in the East (although a few areas had had more showers) we are also hampered by shortages of fungicide products we would prefer to use and may have to apply more costly options.
Weed control: we are very pleased with the poppy control achieved from Astrokerb applications made in Nov and Jan.

East Midlands. Now past mid flowering with some crops with just 2-3 weeks flowering to go. Many crops look very well with good pod set.
Light leaf spot: levels remain low.
Sclerotinia: 2second sclerotinia spray to go on where 3 week period coming to and end and crop potential looks very good.
Seed weevil: numbers generally low and below threshold but the odd report of a few crops being sprayed.

West Midlands. Main stem on most crops has finished flowering some forward crops just looking as though they are starting to turn green again. Getting ever closer to 21 days since main sclerotinia spray applied (week beginning 5th May all crops sprayed between Monday and Friday 21 days ago) apart from one client who informed me today that he was spraying his today. Hoping for high pressure to move in and petals all drop under cool nights and dry days....
Seed weevil: none seen.
Light leaf spot: trace levels in some crops.
Sclerotinia: may need to apply a second fungicide if flowering continues.

North East. Crops range from  GS 4.1 to 4.6 10% to 60% buds open. Average temp for week  10.1 degrees 9.4 mm rain for week
Seed weevil : none at thresholds.
Light Leaf Spot: under control now.
Sclerotinia: control sprays main focus as there is a high risk of petal stick expected at the end of this week with wet forecast.

Winter Barley.

South. Crops now generally at GS39-52 – any outstanding late PGR applications now need completing urgently before ears begin emerging. Thoughts now turning to T2 sprays aimed at when awns visible – likely to be from 7-10 days time.
Eastern. Awns soon to emerge. Some broad leaved weeds now reaching out the top of the canopy and these will receive a mix Ally + Starane. Terpal going onto frothy crops next week before awns poke out!
West Midlands. Flag leaf to awns emerging. T2 starting end of this week, most will be next week. Disease levels very low.
East Midlands. Crops at flag leaf to awns just showing. Both net blotch and rhynchosporium levels low with good control from T1. T2 to go on as awns emerge.
North East.  Flag leaf emerging. Low levels of mildew, Net-blotch and Rhynchosporium. Brown rust in Cassia.

Sugar Beet

It is still a case of two different crops, lighter soils which produced fine seedbeds and which were drilled in mid -March have excellent plant stands of vigorous sugar beet at the 2 to 4 leaf stage  plus. However, heavy soils, especially those drilled later, have been difficult to work. Seed beds are poor due to the lack of frost tilth and these rapidly dried out. In several cases areas of fields are yet to establish a crop. Seed is sitting amongst dry clods. Irrigation has been applied, areas of Norfolk have been exceptionally dry.

Growth of established plants has slowed a little in the cooler weather and bird grazing, with the culprits: sky larks, partridges, pheasants and pigeons, continues to be a problem.

Weed control is continuing a pace there have been plenty of suitable spray days. FAR spraying is working very well with 3 to 4 sprays having been applied in many cases, 5 on organic soil drilled early. With conventional systems generally two post-em herbicides have now been applied, some fields are clean but many will need a third to tidy up completely. Volunteer potato and blackgrass control has also been factored in.