Tillage Farm Management Notes: 05/05/2009
Crop protection now a priority
Michael Hennessy
Land is now very wet following the deluge of rain over the past three weeks. Practically all land work was at a stand still including planting of maize, potatoes and beet. Many growers tried their best to get some spraying completed over the weekend but many found that ground conditions and/or the constant threat of rain eventually limited opportunities.
Drying ground and better conditions overhead will hopefully allow some progress this week. Growers should carefully assess all tasks and prioritise the most urgent in terms of critical growth stages (plants passing the stage where good weed control may not be achieved or passing the critical stage for PGR application). On farm growing a wide variety of crops, where most crops need attention now, tackle weed control in beet first, then apply any outstanding growth regulators to winter crops. The T1 fungicide applications can be added to the PGR spray on the winter wheat's, barleys and oats where appropriate. Leave weed control in spring crops until last. Herbicide rates for weed control in spring cereals can be increased to deal with larger weeds where necessary. All winter wheat's sown before Christmas is due their T1 fungicide now if not already completed. Disease levels have increased in all crops.
Conditions over the past three weeks have been ideal for the spread of all wet weather diseases including septoria, rhyncho and net blotch. The increase in temperatures coupled with the intermittent but regular rain fall helps to increase the speed of development of these diseases and many can go through a full life cycle in as little as 10-12 days. Growers should be conscious that crops which may appear quite clean but will have a certain amount of latent disease on leaves with no visible signs of infection. It may take a week or so before the visible signs become apparent which may be after the application of the main fungicides. Essentially assess crops carefully and take into consideration the varietal disease resistance profile, the sowing date and the presence of disease at the time of spraying. Rates may have to be higher than you budgeted for at the T1.
Rhyncho levels have increased particularly in Spectrum and Saffron winter barley and in early sown Sebastian spring barley (although levels here are still quite low still). Septoria levels are increasing in all winter wheat's but the later sown crops are still reasonably clean so far. Mildew levels have increased on Oakley and Einstein and of course yellow rust is a problem in the north east on Oakley and Robigus.
Weed control in spring cereals can be tackled where weeds have 4-6 leaves (a pair of cotyledons and two pairs of true leaves). Looking at crops around the country from the midlands to the south east it appears the damp seedbeds have encouraged most of the weeds which are likely to be a problem. See the herbicide supplement for further information but remember in order to save money you need to apply the herbicide early when the weeds are growing strongly.
There appears to be an increase in the acreage of beet (fodder and sugar beet varieties) sown this year. Crops sown three weeks ago are hopefully sprayed by now, given the weather over the weekend. Most will have used a herbicide mixture of Debut plus Betanal Expert plus either Goltix or Venzar. Where the herbicide was applied a little late (a green cast off was evident in the field or where the weeds were at the 1-2 pairs of true leaves) make sure to apply a follow up herbicide within 14-16 days of the first application. A short interval between the first and second herbicide application is needed to make sure the advanced weeds are hit (or finished off) before they have a chance to recover. Successful and economic weed control in beet is achieved by effectively controlling the first flush of weeds.
