How do we manage late drilled Winter Wheat?

Often no residual applied – what are the potential weed issues and how do we deal with them.

Drilled into wet conditions – far from ideal – shallow rooting – how do we max yield potential.

Where does additional crop nutrition and biostimulants fit into the agronomy thoughts.

Do traditional fungicide timings go out of the window?

Is there a need for T0 – if not then why.

It is commonplace this season to have later drilled winter wheat that has suffered with continued wet weather since it was drilled. Often these crops haven’t had a residual herbicide and are looking messy and a little worse for wear. Fear not - wheat has extraordinary ability to make a remarkable turnaround given the right conditions and good nutrition, so don’t give up on these crops!

The T0 fungicide could be seen as unnecessary with later drilled crops, but uncertain weather and CTL currently in a use-up period guides us towards the fact that it’s actually very cost-effective insurance.

As time goes on we are then able to be more flexible and embrace the opportunity to compromise with timings, continue to plan around leaf emergence timings rather than length of time between applications. The flag leaf timing (T2) should still be adhered to where possible.

You should be prepared to aid the crop during its turnaround by offering support with root promotion to counteract any long-term effects of shallow rooting along with products that reduce stress by offering a physiological ‘greening’ boost. The addition of a strobilurin early in the fungicide programme could be very useful in these crops, in conjunction with trinexapac-ethyl growth regulator programme.

This is also a good opportunity to consult a tissue test to determine exactly what deficiencies need to be addressed and to initiate the corrections using foliar nutrients or biostimulants.

Without residuals, if blackgrass is a problem then it’s important (if you haven’t already) to utilise a contact herbicide containing Iodosulfuron/Mesosulfuron as this is your only chance to reduce the population.

It’s important to temper your expectations and not to expect too much in the way of control given the lack of pre-ems.

Other grassweeds that maybe an issue include annual meadow grass which can be controlled with the same chemistry.

Most broadleaved weeds can be controlled sufficiently with SU chemistry applied at the correct time.