Harvest – nearly there: The few fine days either side of last weekend helped to get an amount of the remaining crops harvested. Yields, quality and straw have held up well but there are some reports of necking in barley. Working days are much shorter now and gathering straw is more problematic, especially towards the west and north.

Harvesting of spring beans is also well under way but there is little good to report. Yields have been very disappointing with many only recording 0.5-1.0t/ac. Flower abortion brought a premature end to flowering, which resulted in fewer pod numbers.

Oilseed rape: There is still time to plant winter oilseed rape but it may now need some form of fertiliser to drive additional autumn growth. Ideally this should be placed in the seedbed. If you have incorporated organics ahead of planting, you might still benefit from a little N at planting.

Given that we might have 20-40kg N/ha left in the seedbeds, perhaps 20kg N may be optimum this autumn.

Where Katamaran Turbo is to be used for weed control, it must be used either immediately after planting or post-emergence. Do not apply as seedlings are emerging.

Keep an eye on emerging crops if sown following a spring crop due to the risk from herbicide residues. Some brassica crops have already failed in these circumstances.

Planting this week should use seed rates of around 35 seeds/sq m for hybrid varieties and 70-80 seeds for a conventional variety. Ensure that soil pH is up around 6.8.

Catch crops: Any remaining catch crops need to be sown ASAP. Recent changes enable more flexibility in GLAS but most crops are likely to have been sown prior to that announcement. The planting deadline is 15 September for GLAS.

Some crops already planted using min-till seem to be suffering from residual herbicide activity from the previous crop. If you still have to plant following a late spring herbicide, try to cultivate much deeper to dilute its impact.

Animal manures: Once again, there are issues with botulism following application of broiler litter on tillage fields. Try to follow good basic practices in order to minimise risk.

Litter is not supposed to contain carcases so only take litters from a trustworthy source. But once it arrives on your farm, it is safer to have it covered at all times to help keep birds off the pile. This is a right pain and it is a lot more important with broiler litter.

Application must be followed by immediate incorporation. This is about conserving nitrogen and about burying materials that could cause problems. Incorporation must ensure that all applied material is fully covered to minimise the risk of it being carried into neighbouring fields.

Incorporation may be best done by ploughing but there can be bad ploughing too. It is the job that counts. Some discs could do a very good job but the best job might be to shallow cultivate in advance, spread the litter at a later stage and plough immediately at a moderate speed.