I am still not sure how we will remember the planting and growing seasons for the crop of 2017. Autumn planting conditions were generally excellent, but yet some late-sown crops suffered poor establishment. Spring planting was delayed, but the early crops have been growing well since they went into the ground. Some later-sown crops suffered in the drought but most have recovered well.

April and half of May were dry months and this helped reduce pressure from wet-season diseases such as septoria, rhyncho and net blotch. While there was some serious early septoria, its spread seemed to be contained in the dry weather and while we have had some big bursts of rain since, lower infection levels tend to result in lower infection pressure.

But wet season diseases are always a risk. Septoria is on the move where fungicides were missed and I have also seen bits of rhyncho and net blotch in good spring barley crops. We cannot assume that dry weather alone will prevent these diseases, as we have had a lot of heavy dews which help the spread of these diseases, even in the absence of rain. But heavy dew is lower spread pressure than heavy rain.

The dry weather brought its own challenges. Yellow rust caught some people out and it was a really big problem in some fields.

Over the past week, I have been in winter wheat crops that were between booting and earing out. One crop still had the remnants of yellow rust activity, while the other had signs that yellow rust had been present, but it was fully dried up now. This latter crop received a late T1 containing epoxiconazole which did the job but it can take a little time.

Last Thursday, I was at the Glanbia field evening in David O’Dwyer’s near Ballinaboola in Wexford. There, we saw a crop of late October-drilled Avatar that was at late booting. This was very clean, but there was evidence of a little fresh mildew that needs to be watched.

We also visited a crop of field beans that were very uniformly established and showing uniform growth. There was plenty evidence of weevil notching on leaves and this crop had been sprayed with an insecticide to control them. There was also quite a bit of chocolate spot evident on the crop, as well as a few lesions of alternaria. The crop looked to have potential and it looked like the pods were going to be set relatively high up on the stem. There was a lot of downy mildew on some crops this spring, but I did not see any there.

We also visited a crop of Planet spring barley. The crop was at early stem extension, with the lower nodes now 1in to 2in from the base. This was a dense crop, but there was no sign of mildew or rhyncho at this point. There was a level of BYDV evident, but this was not bad really. A spring aphicide had been applied.

Elsewhere, I was in a crop of winter barley which was still flowering. This crop was very clean, with only a few lesions of net blotch evident. The crop seemed strong. It looked like it could be a little thicker, but it was Tower and this variety always brings a second later tiller layer that helps contribute to final yield. It had a good leaf canopy and the lower leaves were dying off due to lack of light.

I also visited a crop of early sown spring wheat which was very clean as the flag leaves appeared. However, like many other spring crops, there was a bit of mildew present. This should be tackled to prevent it getting too bad. Another crop of spring barley I visited last week had the second-last leaf emerging and this is probably at flag leaf emerging now, so it was obviously early sown. This crops was doing well, but it was a bit uneven so it may have suffered in the dry time early in the month. There was a bit of mildew and rhyncho evident, but there was little sign of BYDV.

Up around north Leinster, there was more evidence of crop stress. Dryness remained a factor up to last weekend, when heavy rain gave most areas a good and welcome drink.