Get N, P and K and sulphur onto all winter crops as soon as possible. If you don’t have a soil test within the past four years you must assume Index 3 status. This means 42kg P and 108kg K/ha on an 11 tonne crop of winter wheat or barley and 38kg P and 144kg K/ha on a 10t crop of winter oats, all with straw removed. Winter oilseed rape requires 30kg P and 65kg K/ha for a 4.5 t/ha crop.

All crops need to have some N applied at this point. Some advanced crops appear to be moving into stem extension but there should be no urgent need yet for the main N splits. Don’t risk having a lot of nitrogen applied yet.

There is a lot of talk about manganese deficiency in winter crops. I have only seen photos from a few of these fields and I am less than convinced that this is the cause. Manganese deficiency symptoms generally involve excess widening and lengthening of the leaves, which then turn yellow because the leaf cannot produce enough chlorophyll. This then leads to specking and leaf break but seldom death. However, predictable deficiencies need to be corrected.

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Tillage management: weather improvement may enable field work shortly

Tillage management: spring crops