Spring crops really struggling

mo!

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
York
Ours have only been in a week and look brilliant. Winter and especially late winter crops look very poor.
 

scholland

Member
Location
ze3
Loving 2018 in the far north so far.... View attachment 672020
DSC_0180.JPG
 

DRC

Member
Probably a good thing that we’ve only got maize and spuds this year.
Maize went in on bank holiday weekend and was up a week later,so the ground was definitely warm enough.
6mm of rain last night. Typical after I’d cut some silage .
 

Andy Howard

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Ashford, Kent
Really tough spring here. Very wet before drilling in the last week of April. Then we got 75ml of rain as we finished drilling and flooded some fields. Then turned hot, 28 degrees and baked the surface. Then 17 ml of rain in 2 hours on Saturday. Will be glad when we get to harvest. Spring barley is the big loser. Drilled last as on wet clay then 3 inches of rain soon after drilling knackered some. Beans, oats, linseed look fine but taking ages to get away. Winter crops look OK. Hoping for a kind June/July.
 

Douglasmn

Member
Badly need rain here. At this time of year I'd say our ground ideally would have an inch of water per week to keep things growing at their best. The weather really is the ultimate ball ache in farming.
 

Happy

Member
Location
Scotland
Perhaps you guys down south are now remembering why you went all winter cropping years ago now;)

Seriously though, it's surprising how well Spring barley can do in these conditions. Far drier Spring last year resulted in roots going way down and rather than the disaster it looked like being this time last year set them up for record average yield.
 

Badshot

Member
Location
Kent
Really tough spring here. Very wet before drilling in the last week of April. Then we got 75ml of rain as we finished drilling and flooded some fields. Then turned hot, 28 degrees and baked the surface. Then 17 ml of rain in 2 hours on Saturday. Will be glad when we get to harvest. Spring barley is the big loser. Drilled last as on wet clay then 3 inches of rain soon after drilling knackered some. Beans, oats, linseed look fine but taking ages to get away. Winter crops look OK. Hoping for a kind June/July.
I've some spring wheat that's not going to make it through the concrete the surface has become.
 

SRRC

Member
Location
West Somerset
For the first time ever I've used the solid heavy rolls on seedbeds.
The maize is so dry we followed the drill with it, partly to make sure the seed was firmed properly and partly for fear of poor weed control in the knobbly seedbed. Maize is very particular about it's quality of seedbed and no compaction so normally you wouldn't dream of going into it with a heavy roller.
Did the same with spring beans back in April, at least they had some moisture deep down.
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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