Weather change: There is a very different feel to the weather over the past few days and so we can assume that the winter is with us. This makes it safer to drill wheat into fields with a high take-all risk, or plant oats in land that has wild oats present. The recent wet weather is very unlikely to deter aphid movement, so the threat continues – treat accordingly. The wet also seems to have awoken slugs, which have become active in some emerging crops. Keep an eye on all crops to help identify problems.

Planting: Ground conditions are still good, to reasonable, in most areas and planting is continuing. Winter barley planting should be completed in the south, so the main planting activity will be winter wheat, spring oats and winter malting.

Growers should be reluctant to risk poor establishment from lesser planting conditions. However, much of what remains to be planted is after a break crop and this is where yield benefit is more likely.

Winter wheat seed rates should now be up around 300-350 seeds/m2 – 150-175kg/ha (9.5-11st/acre) for 50g seed. Winter malting barley should go in at around 380 seeds/m2 or 180kg/ha (11st/acre). Complete oat planting at 350 plus seeds/m2 or 140-155kg/ha (9-10st/acre) for 40g seed.

Spraying: Much spraying has already been done with herbicides and insecticides. If conditions are suitable, treat remaining winter wheat and barley crops with insecticide and herbicide. Most treatments will be based around PDM or IPU, along with products like DFF, Defy or Sumimax. Add a full rate of a contact insecticide like Sumi Alpha, Karate, Toppel, Decis, etc. One might also consider manganese or a multi-trace element mix where deficiencies are likely.

Rape crops are generally growing well and covering ground. Some crops have a lot of grass weeds and volunteers present and they should be sprayed shortly with a graminicide, before the canopy makes the weeds impossible to hit. Options include Aramo, Falcon, Fusilade and Stratos Ultra.

Some crops have a lot of weeds present, like charlock, chickweed, shepherds purse, hedge mustard and some poppy. Most of these can be hit with a high rate (up to 25g/ha) of Salsa, plus a wetter, so this could be considered where needed.

Hazardous waste: Last week, I mentioned about the second pilot hazardous waste bring scheme that starts next week. This is worth availing of, as every farm has products that are now deemed to be hazardous and there are relatively few opportunities to get rid of them without big costs. Check the notices and avail of your nearest location.

I mentioned last week that triple-rinsed containers could be brought to these bring centres, but this is not the case. There will be no capacity to deal with empty spray containers, but if they are properly rinsed then they can be brought to a recycling centre where disposal costs are much smaller. Properly triple-rinsed containers are not deemed to be hazardous. Unclean containers can be brought for hazardous disposal, but this could prove to be expensive.