When traditional winter cereal growers say that it was the wise men who decided not to plant this autumn, you know things are bad. But there were not many who did nothing, it was just that they concentrated on harvesting potatoes rather than planting because the crop is valuable and the quality excellent.

While there was still up to 40% of the crop to be harvested as of last week, we must hope that this will be taken out shortly and before it can be damaged by frost given that the tubers are shallow in the drills. For the majority who did manage to get crops planted, the basic husbandry still needs to be done but different decision drivers must be considered.

Emergence time

In recent years, a high proportion of crops emerged from late September through to November. Management of these differed considerably, with herbicide and insecticide protection essential on the earlier crops and pre-emerge sometimes used also. There was great awareness of the BYDV risk associated with early planting and emergence and this did impact on planting time this autumn.

Decisions to delay planting were predominantly driven by BYDV risk. While this is important, early drilling has also been a major driver of increasing pressure from grassweeds. If you get caught with BYDV, you start with a clean sheet in the following year. If you get caught with grassweeds, you will have to live with the consequences for years.

So even if we get varieties in the near future which show good resistance to or tolerance of BYDV, there is still a need to hold back on very early sowing dates to minimise grassweed pressure. Most grassweeds show more germination early in the season and the more weeds a spray has to deal with the greater the chance that the spray may be filtering for resistance. The fewer the weeds the lower the challenge to any herbicide, grass or otherwise.

Some crops were sown early and they emerged well but the majority of the sowing this autumn is much later and these crops are really only emerging now. It is at least likely that the poor-emergence conditions associated with cold wet seedbeds may result in little or no grassweed pressure.

This could mean little or no penalty where later crops are not yet, and may not be, sprayed with herbicide before springtime. If grassweeds are not a problem then herbicide options increase on all cereals.

Manage meadowgrass

That said, weeds like annual meadow grass (AMG) will germinate all through winter and this specific grass may need treatment in winter or spring. Some fields are much worse with AMG than others and some patches in fields can be severe while the bulk of the field may not have a bad problem.

My first port of call in such situations is to look at soil pH. I have always found this weed to be worse where pH is low and control is often impaired in such situations also. Products such as Alister Flex can suit here on wheat in springtime. If you have this problem in winter barley, get a soil test done as the application of lime will be important for the crop, as well as for weed control. Tower might still be an option on some later winter barley.

Given the condition of most fields currently, most growers will not want to, or may not get a chance, to get sprayers out before spring. My guess is that weed pressure is likely to be relatively low and risk from BYDV in crops emerging now is likely to be very low, that is unless the weather takes a dramatic turn for the better. So there should be little pressure to spray late crops in the short term.

The situation will be different for crops sown early. These are emerged for some time and the good advice remains to get an aphicide applied in November as the risk cannot be quantified. But with the weather as it is, a single spray is likely to be adequate unless things change dramatically. Many have this spray applied already, along with some combinations of flufenacet, diflufenican, Defy, pendimethalin etc.

Pests

It seems inevitable that a range of pests will be a bigger problem from here on. Crows are a potentially serious problem and the main deterrents will be kites, thread, scarecrows and bangers, with some lead thrown in. If you get serious pressure you may be forced to feed them directly, away from the field in a yard – €100 worth of oats might go much further than the same amount of cartridges with less hassle. They will still go to the field but they should do much less damage.

Slugs are another concern as numbers seem to have grown all during the wet autumn. Even pellet application may seem impossible in some fields but ground conditions may improve enough for a quad to travel. But there is little point in applying pellets if slugs are not active. There is certainly some seed hollowing and some leaf grazing taking place.

Rabbits are likely to get hungry soon too and there is so little crop in the ground that the earlier full crops may be at even greater risk. There are no easy preventatives here – it is very much a matter of getting numbers down to a manageable level.

Oilseed rape

Oilseed rape planting would appear to be down somewhat again this autumn despite strong prices on offer. For those who have planted, an amount of forward selling might be considered. Rape crops are generally well established and have grown okay where they were planted early.

Like the winter cereals, some crops have not yet received any herbicide while some have received Katamaran or Katamaran Turbo. For unsprayed crops there is still an option to apply either Kerb Flo or Astrokerb to clean up a combination of grassweeds and broad-leaved weeds.

This year, there is also the option to apply Belkar to target chickweed, cleavers, fumitory, mayweed, poppy, deadnettle and shepherds purse. The high rate of 0.5l/ha will be needed where these weeds are now strong. Avoid tank-mixing Belkar with growth regulators and fungicides known to have growth regulatory effects, eg metconazole and tebuconazole, or with boron.