Planting:

Be prepared, but wait for conditions to be right at this point. The big decision is do you plant that dodgy acre or field or that poor headland? Once you bring out a machine you start and keep spending money. Perhaps the option to grow forage or catch crops for others might prove more lucrative than feeding barley on such areas.

The priority now is to get the remaining beans, spring wheat and spring oats planted. Plant beans at around 35 seeds/m2 – 175 to 210kg/ha (11-13 st/ac) with seed at 450g to 550g TGW. Plant spring wheat at 300-350 seeds/m2 or 150-180 kg/ha (10-12 st/ac) (45-50g TGW).

Target oats at about 350-400 seeds/m2 – 125-150 kg/ha for 35g seed (8-9st/ac). Drill malting barley at 325-350 seeds/m2 – 145-160 kg/ha (9.5-10st/ac) for 45g TGW seed – seed may be much bigger and you need to have about 300 plants/m2 established.

Fertilise based on recent soil test results, but pH is critical, especially for beans and barley. Combine drill where possible, but you can broadcast some of the compound if high rates slow down drilling excessively. But there should be some P and K close to or beside the seed. Roll post-sowing where conditions are good enough.

Replanting patches in winter crops that were damaged by recent winter wet is a more difficult decision. Spring-sown patches have to be marked as separate temporary parcels stating the area and crop. This has implications for your BPS application, as well as crop husbandry. Unless the area is big enough, it may be best ignored.