Content previously published in the Farmers Guardian
Benign weather since my last report a month ago has helped many farmers complete autumn drilling in good time and into decent seedbeds.
Autumn rainfall arrived in useful amounts. We had 160mm through September and 25mm up to 17 October as I write. We escaped the forecast deluge from Storm Amy at the start of the month, which in the end produced just 19mm of rain. Within two to three days people were lifting potatoes and drilling grain again on light land.
A lot of barley was sown early and wheat drilling followed on, mainly after maize or grass. People have been able to get in quickly after maize, which has really helped; as we know maize ground is very prone to surface compaction from harvesting operations. Once it rains it can take a while before you can do anything with it. Conversely, there has been no rush to drill after grass, helping to reduce the risk of lodging from sowing too soon into highly fertile soil.
Most residual herbicides have been applied to cereals. The risk of barley yellow dwarf virus has been quite high, so several growers have already applied two aphicides on early drilled stands, along with manganese and foliar phosphite.
The forecast is for more rain; by the time you read this I expect most field work will be pretty much finished for the season. Once the clocks change sprayers will be filled with anti-freeze and put away for the winter.
Overall it’s been a good start to the new cropping season, rounding off several months of good growing weather. We have seen some tremendous grass crops, whilst maize yields have been as good as any over the past few years.
Some late silage cuts were taken last week with fairly instant aftermath regrowth, which will be welcomed by incoming sheep for the autumn. One grower reported his second cut of Westerwolds following a wholecrop winter barley crop cut in late June.
People are starting to lift fodder beet, which has also done very well this year.
Many maize crops are now undersown in line with the winter cover SFI action, which will certainly help prevent puddling and run off on over-wintered stubbles. Unprotected stubbles will benefit from a rough cultivation, provided soils remain dry enough.
Thoughts will soon be turning to more routine tasks, including updating SFI nutrient management plans in good time so we can implement any required changes well ahead of fertiliser and slurry/FYM applications next spring.
Simon Nelson advises farmers on a wide range of arable and forage crops across Cumbria and into south-west Scotland.