Spring is in the air...RAM spring update

David Griffiths – Senior Agronomy Manager, West & North West 

Starting on a positive note, the weather has been much kinder this spring than it was in 2024, with the drier conditions helping to mitigate what has been another challenging autumn and winter. 

Field work is progressing well with plenty of spring drilling happening throughout the west and north west. While these crops have been going into well-prepared seedbeds, the cold weather which has lasted well into the middle of this week has slowed the development of winter crops, and in some cases, crops seem to be going backwards. Fingers crossed the warmer weather which is forecast to arrive next week will correct this and help those recently drilled spring crops to get off to a flying start. 

In terms of winter wheat, we’re seeing a wide range of scenarios: crops that were drilled early look very well, but there is a significant amount of disease bubbling away at the base of these crops. Meanwhile, wheats which were drilled in November or later are more backward. But, thankfully, in both scenarios, most growers have been able to get on with herbicide applications, with contact and residual treatments being put to good effect to tidy up weed problems. For those that still need to apply a post-emergence treatment, there’s still time, and it’s well worth including a residual such as ANTHEM (400g/l pendimethalin) to help prevent any fresh germination of broad-leaved weeds and grass weeds, especially in thinner crops that don’t have the ability to out-compete the more problematic weed species. 

From a disease control perspective, thoughts will very soon turn to T0 applications, with treatments and programmes expected to vary hugely depending on drilling date. Although the cooler, drier conditions have kept disease levels down, we have seen a certain amount of septoria in early drilled crops. This could present a significant problem if/when we get another spell of wet weather, so an application of ARIZONA (500g/l folpet) at T0 is a wise precaution as it will help to slow the development of the disease and will also take the pressure off subsequent treatments at T1. 

For the region’s more backward crops, the biggest threat at present is from yellow rust. For these crops, the key timing for septoria control will be at T1. 

We’ve already seen gout fly in wheat, and oilseed rape crops are under some serious pressure from a pigeon population which has been on the increase since the turn of the year. Hopefully some warmer weather will help crops to grow away from any grazing damage. At the same time, CSFB larvae have also been found in crops of OSR, so despite crops suffering less damage thanks to a good start in the autumn, this pest hasn’t disappeared entirely. 

With that, the next thing on growers’ minds will be protecting crops at the early flowering stage. SORATEL (250g/l prothioconazole) or MAXENTIS (150g/l prothioconazole + 200g/l azoxystrobin) both offer good options for disease management at this timing, with the added benefit of the strobilurin in MAXENTIS helping with crop greening. 

Michael Farr – Regional Agronomy Manager, South 

It’s been a cool but productive start to the spring so far in the south, with the majority of field work now largely done: spring drilling has been going at a pace with, dare I say it, the rapidly drying conditions causing dust to fly in many places. What a difference a year makes.  

Fertilizer has also been going on in a lot of places, although soil and air temperatures will need to rise before the winter cereals to which nutrition has been applied really get moving. 

The story of winter oilseed rape is being dominated by one principal pest, the pigeon, with crops being pegged back and in need of careful management to ensure they recover. In most cases, crop nutrition will be the key to allowing crops to recover the lost biomass – in addition to topping up nitrogen, please don’t forget to remember the importance of sulphur. 

Light Leaf Spot levels are generally quite low this year, but where a fungicide is needed, SORATEL (250g/l prothioconazole) might be more appropriate than a tebuconazole based solution, as the crop will need to develop unimpaired. 

Winter wheats will also need to be managed carefully, and on a field-by-field basis – with crops drilled anywhere between early September and February, growth stages and potential are varied to say the least. 

One upside of the colder conditions is that brown rust appears to be less of an issue this spring. Conversely, septoria is quite easy to find at present. A light fungicide treatment at T0 including 1litre of ARIZONA (500g/l folpet) will deliver good, early season protection, and will also help to keep the pressure off at T1. 

Weed control has generally been good, but where crops need a little extra help to deal with any remaining weeds, there’s still time for a top-up of TOWER (250g/l chlorotoluron, 40g/l diflufenican, 300g/l pendimethalin) which will provide excellent control of annual meadow grass and a wide range of broad-leaved weeds. 

Holly Pratt – Senior Agronomy Manager, East 

Most of the region’s winter cereals are looking really well at the moment, with the recent spell of good weather meaning T0 recommendations to tackle septoria and rust will soon be going on. After the past two years of compromised treatment timings, agronomists and growers are all too aware of the importance of getting ahead of disease control and using appropriate programmes for the scenario, so I’m sure we’ll soon see a flurry of T0 activity. 

The nice weather over the past fortnight has meant we’ve seen plenty of cultivation work and drilling taking place in the east, but it's still a little early to talk about disease pressure in these spring crops. Meanwhile, the biggest headache for OSR growers this year has been damage caused by a burgeoning pigeon population, but warmer conditions will hopefully help crops to bounce back a little. 

The overall weed burden seems to be low as we go into the spring, with those who drilled early managing to get their pre-emergence treatments applied before the autumn and winter rains arrived. Meanwhile, those who delayed drilling until the dry spell in November have seen the benefit in terms of reduced weed pressure as the crops emerged, with many also taking advantage of November’s drier conditions to apply a pre-em treatment. 

Sugar beet growers should also be applying a pre-emergence herbicide to provide a degree of insurance against any compromised post-emergence applications. In Conviso systems it is important to control any early flushes of weeds to enable the crop to establish, and to time the Conviso application correctly. It's also important at this time of year to take sprayer capacity and workloads into consideration: there's little point planning a programme that requires an application every 7-10 days, if the workload only allows application every 14-21 days. 

Alexandria Bell – Regional Agronomy Manager, Northeast 

Most winter cereals have come through the darker months in a good condition, with plenty of growers in the north east currently working their way through the spring’s first fertiliser applications. T0 treatments are also just around the corner, with some of the slightly more advanced crops likely to need a PGR to reduce the threat of lodging later in the year, and to encourage stronger rooting and tillering. 

Autumn herbicide applications seem to have done a sterling job, but there is some talk of a wild and/or tame oat problem in some crops: an application of  TOPIK (240gl clodinafop-propargyl + 60g/l cloquintocet-mexyl) plus a suitable adjuvant oil will help here.  

Bur chervil is also posing a significant challenge alongside groudsel, both of which can be controlled with ANTHEM (400g/l pendimethalin) or TOWER (250g/l chlorotoluron, 40g/l diflufenican, 300g/l pendimethalin). 

From a pest and disease perspective, I’ve heard reports of the first sighting of grout fly in wheat tillers, with active yellow rust and septoria infections also being reported. Early drilled barley has also started to see the very early signs of rhynchosporium.   

With this in mind, growers and agronomists will need to look at the options available to them at T0: as an alternative to applying prothioconazole and tebuconazole to control septoria and yellow rust, ADAMA’s new product, MAXENTIS (150g/l prothioconazole + 200g/l azoxystrobin), offers good protection at T0. ARIZONA (500g/l folpet) is also worth considering at this early timing, as it offers good activity against septoria. 

OSR crops are developing at pace, with flower buds now visible in many of the region’s crops. Disease pressure has been less of an issue so far this year, but pigeons are filling their boots in some areas. And charlock and runch are also proving problematic for some growers. 

In terms of other crops, despite the ongoing cold nights, the finer weather that the last week has delivered has seen spring drilling getting well and truly underway. Potato drilling has also started, so we’ll soon be in blight monitoring mode. Weed control will also be a priority, with SHOTPUT (70% metribuzin) a good pre-emergence option for earlies, and a good pre- or post-emergence option for maincrop potatoes. 

Sugar beet planting has also started: growers using the Conviso system can use GOLTIX 70 SC (700g/l metamitron) or GOLTIX TITAN (525g/l metamitron + 40g/l quinmerac) to boost weed control at the pre-emergence and post-emergence timings. 

Alistair Eccles – Key Account and Agronomy Manager, Scotland 

Most of the winter crops north of the border are looking advanced and are certainly way ahead of where they were this time last year. In fact, some wheat crops are already at GS30, with growers therefore preparing to make T0 treatments which are expected to go on in the last week of March or first week in April. 

Over the last two years, the wet conditions which prevailed throughout winter and into spring prevented the majority of growers from applying an effective T0 treatment. This resulted in higher levels of disease which the ensuing T1 and T2 treatments never really got to grips with. Agronomists will therefore be keen to press on with this year’s T0 treatments to make sure crops are protected as soon as possible. 

Oilseed rape crops will need some help to overcome traces of phoma and light leaf spot, but so far disease levels remain manageable with crops already starting to head skywards. 

A few tidy-up sprays will be needed to control any weeds that managed to avoid what was largely a successful round of pre-emergence herbicide applications in the autumn. 

Spring cultivations are currently in full swing up here, with dry conditions enabling growers to get large areas of spring barley into the ground. There’s still no sign of potato drilling getting underway this far north, but it won’t be long before planting starts in coastal areas.