Most tillage areas of the country received little or no rain over the past week again and some growers will be fearful that there may not be much this week either.

However, if we get rain, or for those who do get rain, it is likely to bring challenges as well as benefits.

One of the other consequences of all the sunny dry weather is that soil temperatures are two or more degrees higher than normal for the time of year.

Nutrient release

When warm dry soil gets wetted by rain, the injection of moisture sparks a surge of microorganism activity in the higher temperatures.

When this happens, it will most likely result in a surge of nutrient release from soil organic matter that is being degraded.

Some crops have already received a small topup of applied N as they began to drop in colour when the dryness hit.

If these, or all crops, now get a surge of nitrogen from the soil, that N, plus the applied N that may still be just sitting there, could well drive a surge in stem growth as crops are now moving into stem extension.

And rapid stem extension in good soft growing conditions can easily result in weak stems and the associated lodging risk.

Growth regulator

This means that growth regulator may be needed if this surge in N availability occurs. The main at-risk fields will be those following a break crop and especially a pulse crop, those that have received very high nitrogen rates already, those that received a recent N topup and all this depends on enough rain to wet the ground.

Growth regulation is normal in spring wheat and oats and it can be based on cycocel alone or in conjunction with other PGR actives.

On spring barley, the challenge is to move early to prevent stems producing soft growth, as this cannot be strengthened retrospectively. So early stem extension is the time to treat with products such as Moddus or Medax Max plus CCC.

It is important to remember that Moddus can be hard on a stressed crop, so you will need to get the rain and see the active growth before using this mixture.