Weather: It’s great to see the good weather after a long winter and spring.

It looks like we have more dry days ahead into next week as well, so it should provide great opportunity for the majority of sowing to be completed.

The weekend and this week have already seen huge progress in the fields, but there are plenty of wet spots taking their time to dry.

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There are still some planting beans, but at this stage the focus should be on cereals.

Maize and beet are also being planted, while potato farmers have huge amounts of work ahead of them. The coming dry spell will be welcome and will hopefully allow the spring sowing campaign to be completed for cereals at least.

BYDV: Spring cereal crops sown in March should not need an aphicide, but the advice for April-sown crops is to spray at the two- to three-leaf stage. It is cold, so aphid numbers should be low if they were planted in early-April, but we don’t know what numbers are so you will need to decide if you want to take the risk.

There are yellow leaves visible in winter barley and winter wheat. Some of this is virus, but there is a lot of scorch or yellowing in crops due to spraying in the cold amd with big mixes as well.

It will soon be out of sight as flag leaves or other leaves emerge, but is a sign of stress on the plant. Brown dots are a common sign of frost damage. Temperatures are set to increase this week for anyone travelling with growth regulator or big mixes.

Growth regulator: Those applying growth regulator to crops need to keep an eye out for big fluctuations in temperatures from day to night to avoid plant stress. There are still some extremes in temperature from day to night for a few days. Those extremes look to be narrowing from Sunday, but some crops are moving fast, with flag leaves out or coming out.

Apply growth regulator on its own where you think frost or low temperatures may be an issue.

Wheat: T1s will be going out on most wheat crops over the weekend and next week. You’re aiming for leaf three being fully emerged. Walk crops and assess disease levels. Is there rust present, is rust a risk? Rust will be easily controlled with a strobilurin or knocked down with tebuconazole, but Septoria is the bigger issue. Is Septoria present in the crop, is it down low or moving quickly up the crop? The aim is to keep the top three leaves clean. In the coming weather it will be easier to get out to spray crops, but for those still planting it will not be simple.

Last week, I gave some product advice, chat through with your agronomist. Take a look at tillage pages 38 and 39 for advice on winter wheat and barley management.

Winter bird food: If you are planting wild bird food under ACRES it needs to be done by 15 May and to remain in place until 1 March 2027. Balancing payments were issued for ACRES this week so check that you have received all payments and follow up if you have not.