Drought

[shakerator]

who is concerned at this early stage?

Dryish winter and spring. Cool temps forecast but is eastern England in trouble this year ?

 

[Minesapint]

Parts of Oxon are struggling let alone the East. Wheats curling yesterday and will soon start dropping tillers. 2012 was similar, just saying!
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[Minesapint]

Don't know what that stupid face is, should be oxfordshire

 

[Feldspar]

who is concerned at this early stage?

Dryish winter and spring. Cool temps forecast but is eastern England in trouble this year ?

How worried are you? In a purely selfish way, good news for heavy land farmers?

 

[Mr Charisma]

How worried are you? In a purely selfish way, good news for heavy land farmers?

Not always , a lot of our ground is red marl ,,,, just as difficult as clay but as moisture retentive as a brick

 

[Mr Charisma]

Certainly glad I bought forward my second dose of N ,,,, most of that had some rain on it to wash it in ,,, will be interesting to see the difference between wheats which had fert washed in and that which didn't ,,,,, should start to show up soon I would think ,,,,, no rain forecast here in the next 10 days

 

[David.]

In the classic pinch here; chuck a big dollop of N on in early Feb and suffer 3" of rain on top of it, or put some on early March and watch it lay on the surface until May. That scenario happens most years here, but we could not travel any sooner and made some ruts where we did.
I'm expecting a fairly mediocre harvest based on today's appearances.

 

[Iben]

Can stay dry for a few more weeks yet as far as I am concerned.

 

[Fish]

Why worry about some thing over which you have no control.
It'll rain when it rains, it is what it is.

 

[Feldspar]

Why worry about some thing over which you have no control.
It'll rain when it rains, it is what it is.

Presumably because it might affect things like your fungicide and fertiliser programme, and might require some updates on cash flow forecasts?

 

[Clive]

We might get lucky this week, unlikely though, crops are showing signs of stress and wont have taken up N2 yet - have BWstar to spray but not going to while stressed and Linseed drilling can wait until we get some moisture

 

[Cowcalf]

grass up here needing rain, far too dry at present

 

[shakerator]

We might get lucky this week, unlikely though, crops are showing signs of stress and wont have taken up N2 yet - have BWstar to spray but not going to while stressed and Linseed drilling can wait until we get some moisture


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Must be some moisture in undisturbed land? Is it cos it has to go in shallow your holding back ?

 

[Flat 10]

Yes I'm worrying.

 

[Flintstone]

I got shouted at last week for saying we need rain!

There is a lot of barley that's going to come through pretty ugly looking without rain in the next 10 days, and there's little forecasted.

I'm not too worried about wheats or rape for another ten days yet.

 

[balerman]

There are some very odd weather signs here,springs I would expect to be dry by now given the dry winter are really hanging on,and I have never seen oak leaves fully out with ash still in bud before.It is 11 years since we had a dry summer here,if it isn't this year I will be very surprised.

 

[Clive]

Must be some moisture in undisturbed land? Is it cos it has to go in shallow your holding back ?

its a lot more flea beetle safe if it grows away fast, that's my thinking

cant see what I would gain dilling it today vs in a weeks time really

 

[shakerator]

How worried are you? In a purely selfish way, good news for heavy land farmers?

Well usually it would be , but so much heavy land is now into spring cropping, and those in wheat never look the best having had the full BG chemical arsenal to contend with over winter.

It is 2 weeks too early to be concerned IMO but....soil deficits are unlikely to recover now unless we get a 2012 type turnaround which looks unlikely

I think Western Europe generally as a whole are in the same boat, so yes it's going to be interesting IMO

 

[Brisel]

I'm not stopping drilling just because it has dried up a bit. One advantage of direct drilling with a strip till drill is that the tine will bring up some of the moist soil from underneath to mix with the seed. The second dose of N is going on the wheat & spring barley which won't be taken up for a bit but some dewy mornings will see some of that go in. I'm cracking on regardless.

 

[Chae1]

Did the countryfile weather forecast not say last night no significant rain in April?

Be struggling by then.