Weather

There is some rain in the forecast, but plenty of dry weather as well. Farmers have been able to do a large amount of work with little pressure – a welcome change from the last few years of wet autumns.

There looks to be good enough weather in the forecast as well for jobs like spraying. Crops like maize and beet have been harvested in recent weeks, and there is very little left to cut.

If you have someone with crops on your farm for silage try and get them harvested as soon as possible to avoid damaging the ground.

Herbicides

As the weather remains dry it is an ideal time to get herbicides out onto winter crops. Many people were focused on harvesting and planting in recent weeks, and may have to spray crops yet.

Consult with your agronomist on the product best suited to your farm. If you have not yet done so, apply a herbicide to control grass weeds and volunteers to your oilseed rape. You may need to control other weeds as well.

Slugs

Keep checking for slugs, especially where straw was chopped. Put out a slate with porridge underneath it and check numbers. Avoid applying pellets before rain.

Aphids

Many crops are at the stage for an aphicide. Crops should be sprayed at the two to three leaf stage. If you grew a Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus (BYDV) tolerant variety, then you may decide not to spray an aphicide as you have insurance in that variety and there is little benefit to spraying.

But if there is high pressure from aphids, there can be a benefit. BYDV tolerant varieties include KWS Joyau, Integral, Molly (resistant) and Orcade.

Three-crop rule

For those still sowing, remember everyone has to comply with the crop diversification requirements again this season. If you have less than 10ha of tillage, you do not need to comply with this rule.

If you grow 10-30ha of tillage then you need to grow at least two crops, and the main crop cannot take up more than 75% of the arable area on the farm. You need to grow three crops if you have more than 30ha of tillage.

The main crop cannot take up more than 75% of the arable area, and the two main crops cannot take up more than 95% of the arable area on the farm.

Failure to comply with this will result in penalties under CAP payments. The requirement to comply with crop rotation rules is no longer there. There was a requirement to have a different crop in a field once every four years.

You can still comply with this if you want and you may naturally be in compliance, but you do not have to. All farmers must comply with the three-crop rule.

Payment

Most merchants have settled on prices now, so you can be paid in full for your grain. Keep an eye out that payments from the Department of Agriculture have been lodged and the correct amount is there.