It looks like we could be shaping up for an early harvest but who knows. Most crops continue to look well and show good potential but some areas that suffered early on have not fully recovered.

Frequent rain is the new worry, especially for winter wheat and barley, due to the risk of ear blight. But heavy rain followed by dry is probably safer than continuous damp muggy weather.

There are a lot of BYDV symptoms in some spring barley crops. Some of this may not be as bad as it looks given the prominence of the tall yellow leaf and the density of some of these good crops. Other crops have a lot of infection. But the symptoms are a bit different to normal. Virus infection generally shows yellowing of the upper leaf on all leaves simultaneously but most spring barley crops are currently only showing yellowing on the second or third last leaf.

Most spring crops remain quite clean and growers have taken action against mildew. But there may soon be pressure from rhyncho, net blotch or septoria. One could even see halo blight appearing on oats if the rain continues.

Heavy rain is a risk to heavy winter barley crops and some lodging is likely, at least on ins-and-outs. This mean getting ready to keep crows out so take the necessary preventative action in your most susceptible areas.

Tillage management: spring crops

Tillage management: winter wheat

Understanding the challenge of blackgrass

Tillage management: heat drove development

The return to wet weather has sparked fears of ear blight infection following a year of generally low disease pressure.