These conditions are exactly what barley growers were afraid of when they were reluctant to plant in recent weeks. But while land is wet, most tillage areas are significantly less wet than they were this time last year.

Heavy rain last week prevented field activity in most areas. Infrequent frost continues to benefit land that is already ploughed. There are still a lot of stubbles carrying big amounts of volunteer vegetation, which needs to be killed to help minimise the risk of aphid transfer to new crops.

Volunteer vegetation should be burnt off or ploughed down. However, good ploughing should be adequate if you can bury all the green vegetation. Perhaps spray headlands and ins-and-outs.

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