Wet returns:

Recent rain appears to have fallen mainly in the tillage regions and appears to have been most severe in the south and south east. This may make land sloppy again, but most work is now done. Soil temperatures have jumped back up to 2°C to 3°C above normal, following the rise in air temperatures, and this can be seen in the recent spurt of growth – especially in emerging crops.

Take one more look around all your crops ahead of the Christmas break, just in case. The just in case would be to check for slugs or rabbits on forward crops and to look out for crows and slugs in recently sown crops. It is not uncommon for slug activity/feeding to increase following either a wet or a frosty period.

Rabbits will continue as a problem where damage is taking place already and where they have a taste for your crop. Hopefully crow damage has ended on all but the most recently planted crops. Warmer temperatures may help provide alternative feeding grounds for them.

The biggest uncertainty has to be aphids and BYDV. The return of mild weather could enable aphid multiplication, especially in sheltered locations. While spraying cannot be advised, you do need to keep an eye on crops in higher-risk areas. Walk crops during sunshine to help see the aphids.

Pigeons on rape:

Pigeons have dipped in and out of some winter oilseed rape crops in recent weeks but without major problems. However, this is likely to change, and more backward crops and weaker patches are at greater risk. Try and prevent grazing of patches as this will lead to non-uniform crops and management difficulties. Once they attack, it is very difficult to move them on, but there is no definite yield penalty from pigeon grazing. Grazed crops will need more spring nitrogen and better weed control.

Plan to profit:

While we all hope that things will improve against the run of play, the fact remains that price pressure is likely to continue. It will only ease if there is some big production disaster somewhere. Low prices mean we must think more about where we spend and why. We must begin to use more land management to help remove costs. We have come to regard certain costs as essential – but are they?

In my opinion, there are a number of costs that must be targeted. Slugs can be largely controlled by good stubble cultivation post-harvest. When you do this every year you will tend to have a relatively low population to cause harm.

The same practice can massively reduce leather-jacket numbers and damage, and now there is no spray alternative. But there are a few other tricks that could help if you end up with a problem.

It is not essential that every field have wild oats or sterile brome. But eradication requires that other actions be taken to reduce weed numbers, other than just spraying. This is increasingly important as resistance issues increase. Every thinking farmers should have a zero-tolerance approach to the majority of grass weeds, and stubble cultivation is again an essential control alternative.