Harvest progress: Broken weather has slowed harvest progress but there has been some cutting and many crops are only just getting there. More recent reports suggest higher yield levels so let’s hope that continues. Straw seems to be very slow in crops that were not sprayed off but there has still been a lot of straw baled recently.

At this point growers feel pressured to get in to crops because straw is beginning to break down in the showery weather. This is not a big problem yet but continuous broken weather could cause losses in a relatively short period.

Harvesting of winter oats has begun also, with promising early reports. Yields are said to be good, with specific weights in the mid-50s and excellent colour so far.

Lodging: The heavy showers over the past week caused significant lodging in many crops and in many parts of the country. The problem appears to be worst in spring barley as many crops were quite good and very heavy to begin with.

It’s been a long time since we have seen significant lodging and the patterns can make some of the causes difficult to explain. However, the main driver is likely to have been the carryover of nitrogen and other nutrients from poor-yielding crops last year which must have taken up relatively little of the nutrition provided due to the dry conditions.

The most obvious difficulties are on the ins-and-outs where additional seed and then additional nitrogen contributed to the cause. But there is all kinds of streaking out in fields also which might be related to organic manure application or to the growth and grazing of catch crops. One might not normally expect a catch crop to have a big impact on lodging pressure but it is a possibility on very worn ground.

One other possible factor that was very visibly this year is the chaff loading directly behind the combine. Winter crops showed this all autumn and spring. As combine headers get bigger there is a bigger deposit of chaff directly behind the combine where no spreaders are fitted. This is eating up nitrogen to decompose it and this could be seen as streaking in fields all winter. This may also have had an impact on spring crops where the area behind last year’s combine would be thinner and less likely to fall.

Stubbles: The proliferation of weeds this year should point to the necessity to get stubbles cultivated to encourage weed seed germination to reduce the weed seed bank in the soil. This should be done once straw is cleared.

Early cultivation is better for the germination of our problem grass weeds in particular. This should be done even ahead of putting in a green manure, as it should green up in seven days and a second cultivation should kill the first flush and encourage a second flush to come in the cover crop.

This process might be giver a longer window where catch crops are to be sown ahead of a spring crop. And this should be done as leaving land idle is bad for the land and the environment. Use the opportunity to produce organic matter for your land or to feed or sell. Hopefully this year’s crop will show the benefit of last autumn’s cover crops.