Castille bucking the trend of
patchy establishment.
Photo P Tuplin

South West: Dry seed to 4 leaves. Very variable emergence with any ploughed seedbeds faring worst - especially if power harrow combination drilled. Best emergence from August 20th to 25th drillings where seed beds prepared quickly using non inversion techniques and drilled with cultivator drills into fine soil giving good seed to soil contact. Hybrids have shown their worth with high vigour in difficult conditions.

Flea beetle: shot holing pronounced even after seed treatment as dry conditions have slowed emergence and reduced persistence.

Slugs: none seen.

Volunteer cereals: especially barley a headache. In many cases the volunteers are at a highly competitive level before all the rape has reached expanded cotyledons at which point graminicides may be applied.

Eastern Counties: Majority of crops drilled by 10th Sept. Very patchy emergence in dry seedbeds. Some light ploughed fields have emerged well with fine seedbeds. There has been some patchy, localised rain recently up to 5mm which should help but still many seedbeds lacking sufficient moisture for uniform germination. Main varieties grown Castille, Es Astrid, Lioness and NK Bravour.

Flea beetle: activity high especially where plant population is sparse, they seem to aggregate on lone plants.

Slugs: pellets applied where deemed necessary, very little activity yet in current conditions. Pellets remain intact. Some damage seem on heavier soils with a few fields requiring redrilling after delays in pellet applications.

Turnip Sawfly: Turnip sawfly larvae have decimated a stubble turnip crop in the area.

Weed control: pre-emergence herbicides generally applied straight after drilling. Only sufficient rain in a few locations to activate these products. In hindsight it may have been better to wait and apply early post-emergence herbicides but timing would now be very difficult with patchy rape emergence. High level of cereal volunteers emerging (due to a lot of tail end grain coming out back of combine?).

East Midlands: Crops are "all over the place" - some crops at 2-3 leaves with good establishment with others backward at cotyledon where waiting for some moisture. There are still a lot of crops yet to emerge. Pre-emergence herbicides being held off until crop seen (i.e. very early post em).

Flea beetle: none seen.

Slugs: generally crops had a application of pellets immediately post drilling - no risks taken with late emergence and slow growth. One small field was missed with pellets and slugs started to attack - a quick application saved the crop but this shows the risk of missing pellets

Weed control: volunteers variable with some crops showing very little and others requiring graminicide soon.

West Midlands: Very dry soils and desperately need rain to get the crop growing. Only crops growing well are those that have been ploughed and drilled, although crops on lighter land that were min tilled are establishing well.

Flea beetle: only slight damage seen so far.

Slugs: very little damage seen.

Weed control: pre-emergence herbicides have let poppies through on lighter land due to dry conditions.

North East: All drilling completed by early September, but very few crops emerged yet. An exception is a crop of Castille which was ploughed and sown (See photo). Most seedbeds are very dry , and crops are only emerging on the lighter areas of fields.

Flea beetle: moderate levels of damage seen where dry cloddy seedbeds.

Slugs: most crops had a low rate of pellets applied after drilling and in some cases significant numbers of slugs were killed, but for most there has been little sign of nay activity so far. The good news is the pellets are still there.

Drilling Humber wheat after
rape in East Yorkshire
Photo P. Tuplin

South West: Early sowings at 2 leaves. Emergence patchy. Deep drilling (40mm) plus Deter dressing mean little seed hollowing. Fields are dry and dusty on the surface but some moisture at 35mm plus where cultivations not excessive.

Aphids: none seen

Slugs: surface grazing currently minimal.

Blackgrass: emergence slow in stubbles and early drilled crops reflecting predictions of increased dormancy this season.

East Midlands: no wheat emerged yet - very little drilled up to this week due to soil conditions. Main problem may well be dormancy - apparently Solstice has suffered worse than most this year. Estimating seed rates is a lottery - mainly aiming for 70% field establishment with the dry cloddy soils and possible dormancy and keeping seed rates up - not a year for ultra low seed rates. Crops will either be too thick or too thin!.

Aphids: none seen.

Slugs: none seen yet attacking crops but rape volunteers growing prior to wheat have been "silver" with slime trails showing high slug risk. Heavier, cloddy soils having some pellets mixed with seed.

Field conditions: cloddy top 2 inches or so with wet soil beneath. Heavy rolls have packed lower wetter soil - probably best to abstain from drilling until some rain helps break down clods.

West Midlands: Early sown wheat is at GS 12, so far approxiamatley 2000 acres drilled. A lot of wheat being drilled this week, mainly variety Humber. Thousand grain weights are variable ranging from 42 to 56 so drill calibrations need to be checked.

Aphids: none seen.

Slugs: none seen yet

Weed control: stopping all pre-emergence herbicides at moment until we have rain, as extremely dry seedbeds and potential for damage to seedlings, quite happy to apply once seedbeds wetter to hold on to chemical.

Eastern Counties: Very little drilled yet although starting this week. One field of Alchemy drilled early September is now at GS11/12. Overall drilling delayed due to extended harvest, late oilseed rape drilling and dry seedbeds.

Aphids: none seen.

Slugs: high numbers on stubbles particularly after oilseed rape.

Field conditions: surface very dry until 17th as a result of 15mm rain overnight. Very wet at plough depth which has encouraged increased use of min till largely using disc-based cultivators with or without deep tines.

North East: Earliest drilling only done towards end of last week. Most just starting on 1st wheats this week. Some Claire, Humber, Robigus and Welford drilled so far with seed rates around 280 /m2. Many fields too dry and cloddy to consider drilling until have more rain, but some more recently ploughed fields are working well and have enough moisture for rapid emergence. Recorded 6mm rainfall on 18 September, which is first recorded since 22nd August.

Aphids: none seen

Slugs: Likely to be major problem but little activity seen so far. Again hoping for some seed protection from the seed dressing.

Blackgrass: effectiveness of stale seedbeds has been variable. A few fields have 'greened up ' well and been sprayed off. The effect of high dormancy and dry seedbeds is very obvious in most fields though which have very low levels of grass emerging.

: Very little drilled yet.