Wet continues: It seems that the prospect of a break from the rain hinted at last week is now unlikely and we have to keep all equipment parked for the time being. This will push planting dates further for crops like beans, oats and spring wheat. While nature generally compensates on yield, later ripening remains a possible consequence. Later planting can often give faster spring growth.

Most land remains saturated and so not suitable for nitrogen application. However, there is a bit of growth in winter barley and winter rape so you may need to consider N soon. If ground conditions are good enough to avoid tramline damage a little N might be worth the gamble.

Disease: Mildew remains very evident in some forward crops of barley, wheat and oats and this is quite bad in places. However let the winter continue to take its toll as rain and occasional frost will help beat down this disease. Mildew may also hit tiller survival in some very dense canopies but this could be a plus rather than a minus.

Spring nitrogen: There is no need to rush out with nitrogen onto winter wheat and oats but barley and rape need feeding once active growth is taking place. But yet it makes little sense to risk a large amount of N at this point in a wet spring. Many fields will just not take machinery and so there is no choice. But if your field is saturated there will be very little growth anyway.

Rape is growing and so should be fed if possible, especially more backward crops. However, it would be foolish to apply a big amount at this time given the risk of leaching etc. Required rates could range from zero for a crop that is about 10 inches tall and full, to about 140 kgN/ha for a crop canopy of 1.5 GAI which would be backward or grazed.

Many crops may have adequate or close to adequate canopy already and so are in less urgent need of N. But low canopy crops need to be driven once growth gets underway. On these crops if you get the land dry enough with a moderate forecast you might put on about 30kg to 50kg of N/ha plus sulphur but do not attempt to put on all the S at this stage as it is quite soluble and so subject to leaching or runoff. As we move later more of the N must be applied.

Winter barley also needs to be driven once active growth is taking place in order to help tillering, tiller survival and yield potential. But it is still better to hold off for a while unless your crop is growing strongly. Nitrogen is expensive so you must try and make the best use of every kilo applied. So once soil and forecast are suitable, apply up to 60 kgN/ha to winter barley. There should be less urgency on fields that received significant amounts of an organic manure in recent years.

As land dries: Some land has soaked well, considering, while other land still has water on top. We are now at the business end of the season and so primary work must be done once conditions are good enough. But there must be a balance between getting work done and doing work that is good enough for spring planting.