OBM / Lemon Midge

Spotted a few of each colour in 60% ear emerged Skyfall this pm. At least two lemon for every orange.
I thought one of the fringe benefits of the ground being so dry would be no midge till rainfall...seems i was wrong. Nowhere near spray threshold.

More disappointing in a way, and very surprising, was the number of aphid present. I had noticed a few peach and more green on leaves 1 and especially 2 earlier in the week but their numbers have just exploded. Peach are colonising on the ear..maybe 1 ear in 50 so far..and one colony of black (bean i assume) aphid on ear also.
In 20 years of spraying i have never sprayed aphid at this time of year. Can't remember ever coming close to needing to.
In the 80/90's my father did plenty, but those were different times.

Re natural predators i have to admit to wondering where my spiders have gone. I few ladybirds about, but they are obviously not making an impression. 40 ml of autumn Hallmark on most of what i was looking at this PM.
No autumn insecticide on later drilled wheat not yet on ear, but i know there are a few aphids in these crops also.
 

BigBarl

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
South Notts
Yep I saw midge flying and on the ground this afternoon. Like you I didn’t expect to see any as there has been no rain. I couldn’t tell if I saw Lemon or orange I didn’t look close enough. If there are a lot of lemon I would say spraying is worthwhile as they take the whole grain site out where as orange just cause it to shrivel to my understating of the two.
 

BenB

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Wiltshire
Colleague sent me the below from Hampshire earlier today :( But apparently they had 8mm rain last Sunday. I haven't seen any significant numbers yet...

Photo 24-05-2019, 16 58 18.jpg
 

snarling bee

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Bedfordshire
Seen lemon around here, but no ears out yet. Quite a few lemon last year.
I don't understand why varieties can be resistant to orange BM, but there is no resistance to lemon. Pest of the future I think.
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
No midges nor aphids here yet. I had a few little pockets of WOBM damage in unexpected places last year, but I was glad I didn't spray. The patches were showing up as damaged grain at harvest & you could see the orange debris in the combine.

In reality i am waiting for a likely midge explosion before throwing stones.
But just focusing on the ear aphid, what is considered the responsible strategy these days?

A responsible strategy is not to spray but to have habitat for beneficials.

https://ahdb.org.uk/aphid-news
https://ahdb.org.uk/wheat-blossom-midges
 

Robm 1959

Member
Location
West Sussex
I had it suggested to me that I should add stealth with T2 as an anti feed for the OWBM.Anyone else ever heard of this ?? I didn’t ( I didn’t spray the pollen beetle in the rape either, hope I don’t live to regret that !!
 

Sonoftheheir

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
West Suffolk
I’ve never heard of these midges till last year, we were too late with the spray. They did have a significant affect in the quality of the grain. Made a lot of tail wheat imo.
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
I’ve never heard of these midges till last year, we were too late with the spray. They did have a significant affect in the quality of the grain. Made a lot of tail wheat imo.

2004 was the last bad year for them. Anyone with a good stock of Dursban saved a lot of milling premiums that year. There's little left on the shelf as a remedy for midge now, only perfectly timed pyrethroids like Hallmark hitting them directly, hence Clive's comment about good spraying capacity.
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
2004 was the last bad year for them. Anyone with a good stock of Dursban saved a lot of milling premiums that year. There's little left on the shelf as a remedy for midge now, only perfectly timed pyrethroids like Hallmark hitting them directly, hence Clive's comment about good spraying capacity.

Best thing is to grow resistant varieties

And encourage beneficials - they have plenty predators, unfortunately not many on a lot of farms where insecticide and pyrethroid use is prolific

We often make our own bed as farmers !
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
Best thing is to grow resistant varieties

And encourage beneficials - they have plenty predators, unfortunately not many on a lot of farms where insecticide and pyrethroid use is prolific

We often make our own bed as farmers !

Those measures help, but cannot overcome an epidemic of pests like these. With so few workable chemical options available, you're still best off doing both of those (y)
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Those measures help, but cannot overcome an epidemic of pests like these. With so few workable chemical options available, you're still best off doing both of those (y)

Agree to some extent but why do we get such imbalance in nature ? Could it be because we have seriously upset that balance ?

We need to start asking bigger questions than just which bag or bottle we should reach for
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
Agree to some extent but why do we get such imbalance in nature ? Could it be because we have seriously upset that balance ?

We need to start asking bigger questions than just which bag or bottle we should reach for

Few bags & bottles used in Africa, yet they still get plagues of locusts. Do your best and spread your risk with a good rotation then you won't be exposed to one serious event.
 

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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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