Lot of work done

The spell of dry and often cold weather has helped to get planting up to date in most of the country but there is still some cereal planting to be done. This will be mainly maize, beet, potatoes and vegetables.

Spring crops are emerging very well with rainfall helping uniform establishment. Many winter crops grown in fertile fields with healthy soils look like they can cope with less total applied nitrogen this year.

Keep an eye out for micro-nutrient deficiencies and try to act ahead of symptoms. Visible symptoms mean lost yield potential which cannot be recovered by treatment.

Keep an eye on any ley fields for leather-jacket or wireworm damage. Crows are your friends in this type of situation but some plant loss is inevitable as collateral damage.

Nitrogen

Nitrogen is already applied to many emerged malting barley crops to help keep grain protein down. But if you need to get proteins up, delaying N application up to mid-tillering could be more useful than applying more N, given its cost, on early drilled crops.

Frequent showers have been very useful in terms of getting applied N washed in and doing its job. Total N rates on malting barley range from 120-150kg N/ha depending on the rotation, distilling etc. Early N on feed barley, wheat and oats is less urgent where there is plenty N in the seedbed.

Main N splits for winter wheat and oats should be on now. Adjust target rates for N index, rotation and previous organic manure application.

Many fields appear to have kept a good colour right through to spring, indicating they have more soil N reserves, which should help to safely reduce rates.

Depending on the background factors, bring wheat up to 140-170kg/ha now and oats to 120-145kg N/ha. The high end of these ranges apply to worn ground that has had little organic manure or other soil conditioning factors.

Plant protection

Winter barley crops are at varying places in disease programmes. Some are ready for their second fungicide, with others due their first at around GS32.

Ensure that what you are applying covers brown rust control in case it becomes more aggressive. Crops look healthy but an application of folpet (1.0-1.5 l/ha) now, plus another with the final fungicide, may be important to reduce ramularia.

A lot of winter wheat is now at PGR stage. If you are cutting back on total N, Cycocel alone may suffice to help with overall cost control. But if you have real lodging risk, then products like Modus and Medax Max will help.

The presence of rust diseases in wheat, oats and barley means that all crops must be watched carefully.

Wait until the third last leaf is fully emerged to apply the T1 fungicide on wheat. This will mean dissecting the leaf sheaths to see how many leaves are still to emerge.

When the third-last leaf is fully unfolded, the second last leaf will be well out, but still rolled up.

Where oat crops have active crown rust, Elatus Era is amongst the products of choice.