Earlier this week, I was out in fields in south Wicklow to find crops there more advanced than where I had been in recent weeks and also to find crops in more variable condition. Some of these crops may have been relatively high up considering where I was, but they were none the worse for that.

There was a lot more winter wheat in this region than in other areas I have driven through in recent weeks. But there was also quite a bit of winter barley, as well as spring barley. And there was also quite a bit of winter rape in the region, as it is now highly visible.

Winter wheat crops were a bit variable. Crops were generally at GS32, heading to GS33, with the third-last leaf fully emerged and the second-last leaf almost out.

The first crop I visited was by far the dirtiest wheat crop I have been in this year. It was a relatively forward crop, with the second-last leaf almost fully emerged. There was a lot of dead leaf and leaves with the tips burned back. But most of this is likely to be more related to spray damage-type symptoms rather than disease – possibly frost following chemical application.

There were definite septoria lesions in this crop, but they were not excessive or very bad. However, the presence of septoria pycnidia high up the canopy makes it easier for the disease to spread across to the emerging final leaves. Some of these lesions probably relate to an infection event near the end of March.

There were a good few volunteer rape plants in this field and also quite a bit of fumitory. However, these had been sprayed and the weeds had died back. There was also quite a bit of grass weed present, an amount of which looked like rough stalk meadow grass, and there was no great evidence that this was sprayed.

This was not a very full crop, but it had tillered well and the tillers were strong and will help the crop compensate in areas of lower plant density.

Another winter wheat crop was at a similar growth stage in what was obviously a very wet field and travelling could have been difficult at times. There was also a lot of grass weed in this crop, which again did not look to have been sprayed recently. But there did not seem to be an issue with any of the meadow grasses, so perhaps it had been sprayed in the autumn.

The fact that the only weed present was late-germinating volunteer oilseed rape would support this observation.

There was virtually no sign of foliar disease in this crop and it had four intact and green leaves. But there were definite signs of BYDV in this crop as either small patches or pairs of plants.

Rape in full flower

There was more winter rape visible across this area than in many other parts of the country. You can hardly miss it now given the intensity of flowering. But it is at the stage when crop inspection is very difficult.

Most crops are nice and uniform, helped by the good establishment. Flowering shows crop variability and the hilly landscape of this region exaggerates such symptoms. But most crops looked quite even, except for a few patches.

The broken weather will see rain knocking off petals now and thus increase the risk of sclerotinia infection. So make sure your crops are covered with products like Filan or Proline. If flowering is prolonged by low temperatures, then a second fungicide may be beneficial.

Winter barley

People are beginning to comment that winter barley is unlikely to be a very big crop this year and the majority of crops I have seen in recent weeks support this view.

Most crops are just not as full or as uniform as one would like them to be in order to push over the 4t mark. But then no one really knows the yield until the trailers bring out the crop.

The first crop of winter barley I saw was at GS39, but there was no sign of any awns yet. The field was on the side of a hill and the crop itself was a bit uneven. There was no foliar disease in this crop, but there was quite a bit of BYDV evident through it. At a guess this was about 5% to 8%, mainly as single plants.

The next crop of winter barley was even more variable in terms of density. There were some really good areas in this field and some much thinner areas.

The headlands were very poor in patches, possibly arising from compaction, but low fertility is also a possible reason. As tramlines get wider, it is more common that less of the P and K is applied close to the butts of ditches and this eventually tells. The same problem can arise with lime application.

In general, the field was free of weeds, but whatever was applied last autumn let fumitory through. There was a lot of this weed present but it had been sprayed off in recent weeks.

This crop was generally clean, with virtually no rhyncho evident. But there were quite a few old mildew lesions visible on all leaves. Looking across the field, it looked like there was a significant incidence of BYDV given the amount of yellow-tipped leaves visible.

However this was leaf cracking at the point where the younger leaf overwintered in the collar of the older leaf and erratic winter growth conditions squeezed it to the point that the leaf tip severed and died. This is more common in wheat.

Emerging barley

Apart from a few fields of spring barley at the tillering stage, most of the spring barley crops I visited were only at emerging stage – from GS11 to GS12.

The first was a group of fields which were well sown, uniform and almost at the second leaf unfolded stage. The field had been rolled with a flat roller post-planting, perpendicular to the direction of the tramlines and the job was the better for it.

The seeding rate was certainly not excessive, but the crop will be fine as long as fertility and nitrogen management is correct. It was noticeable that there was a forest of weeds coming up in places in the field.

The next field I visited was not such a pretty sight. The variable colours caught my eye from a distance. It looked like a ley field, as there were lots of clods about and this can often give rise to variable sowing depth, which I thought was the problem.

There were patches of white/pale plants all through the field and not occurring in any particular order. The tips of these plants were bleached and dead, quite like it had suffered from salt spray by the sea. It was not sown deep.

I thought for a few minutes it might have been seed dressing damage, but I do not think it was that either.

There were patches of lovely lush green plants side by side and this added to the challenge. In the end, I am left wondering if this was frost damage during emergence. This is possible, especially during those warm days and frosty nights where warm soil speeded up the emergence of soft plants.

One other field of spring barley I visited had some of this same problem. It was also ley ground, but not so high up.

Winter oats

I visited one field of winter oats. This crop had the flag leaf fully emerged and it had been kept nice and short. But there were a lot of weeds present – chickweed, speedwell and fumitory in particular, with some pansy and groundsel. These weeds had only recently been killed.

There was also a lot of grassweed and mayweed on the headlands. There was no mildew or rust, but there may have been some BYDV and there was quite a bit of fusarium stem rot present. I could even see the little pink maggots which feed on this particular fungus.

There was a small bit of cutworm damage present, with dead hearts above the exit hole in the stem. There was no foliar disease, but there was an awful lot of purple flecking close to the tips of the leaves.