Spring weather at last: The early days of March appear to have brought some semblance of spring with tractors out on land in places early. But most fields are still too wet to travel without significant risk of damage to tramlines. The forecast would indicate much less rain in the week ahead and so next week could get busy if there is not much more rain this week.

Fertilizer: This is a priority when you can travel. Rape and winter barley first, then on to wheat and oats. This may be straight N+S or a compound, depending on what you have done already. It is important that land has soaked well before application so that the fertilizer can dissolve and wash in, rather than wash off, if rain follows application.

The amount of early N for rape will depend on the amount of canopy present. If you have chicken manure under the crop, and it is already bulky, apply the minimum to get about 40kgS/ha applied. This would mean about 35kgN/ha if you are applying granular sulphate of ammonia or about 75 kgN/ha if using ASN. If you are applying SulCAN in all applications then aim for 45-50 kgN/ha now on lush crops. Where crops have very little canopy apply up to 150 kgN/ha now (+S).

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Apply 60-70 kgN/ha on winter barley now. On winter wheat and oats target 40-50 kgN/ha. Aim to apply 15-20 kgS/ha total on all cereals, as one early or multiple splits.

Application of P and K should be applied according to the needs of the crop in each field to bring soil P and K levels up to Index 3. Remember a 10t/ha crop will remove 38 kgP and 98 kg K/ha. Oats will take out much more K than the other cereals. And I believe that our crops may take out even more than the off-take numbers we use because our straw is even more rare than other countries.

Sulphur: This is important on all worn land that does not get regular organic fertilizer. It is important for the efficient use of N and a deficiency looks like nitrogen deficiency. The quantities are relatively large and so it is very awkward to apply the required rate as a spray. More is needed on light worn land and less should be required where land has been getting organic manures over a period of years.

Planting: Some will get a chance to drill in the coming week – many may not. Spring beans, spring wheat, spring oats and malting barley are the priorities. Combine drill fertilizer where soil fertility is low. If you can’t combine drill then incorporate the compound fertilizer into the seedbed. You can plough down some P and K to have less to apply at drilling. Index 2 soils need 35 kgP/ha plus 95 kgK/ha for a 7 t/ha spring barley crop where straw is removed – more is needed where yields are higher. Maximum rates of N and P apply per farm.

I have no fear about planting beans still – consider drilling them with a Claydon. Aim to plant spring wheat at 300-350 seeds/m2 or 150-175 kg/ha (10-11.5 st/ac) (assuming 50g TGW). Drill barley at 350-375 seeds/m2 155-170 kg/ha (45g seed) (10-11 st/ac). Be guided by seed size in the bag and push up seed rate where seed is large. Seedbed conditions remain the biggest factor for seed rate.