OSR And The Dreaded Flea Beetle

[Luke Cropwalker]

There must be a huge amount of OSR establishment on here with trying to establish OSR in the face of ever increasing pressure from Flea Beetle. If we all share what has worked and more importantly what hasn't worked we might be able to see some sort of trend? Perhaps someone has used a novel approach and been successful? I think location is important as there are obviously hotspots around the country. The very dry conditions in autumn 2018 obviously didn't help, did anyone have a really good establishment when all the neighbours struggled?. I will monitor the thread to see if the mighty TFF brain can help beat the little blighters.

 

[Northdowns Martin]

Appear to see some success from adding Berseem clover to mix and upping seed rate of osr. Biggest key is getting as even and vigorous germination as possible. Going to try undressed seed this year in attempt to get it even quicker out the ground.

 

[teslacoils]

We started playing on 16th August through to 31st August. 1/2 subsoiler on 45cm rows with hybrid Aquilla seed. 1/4 subsoiler on 60cm rows with DK exsomething seed. 1/4 normal vaddy drill into prepared seedbed using 5kg farm saved django. All rolled at least twice. All had 30kg n as dap in the seedbed. All that grew. That's about 650ac

We wrote off 150ac after wheat and 100ac after fallow all conventional drilled with hybrid seed.

Most of the failed came about from a decision to stop spraying insecticide on the grounds of "they are probably resistant anyway". This was an error. We probably made three passes of chem on the good stuff - you simply can't get over the stuff quick enough with close to 900ac without a dedicated sprayer and man. Stuff sprayed at night was better. Didn't help the number of spray days was low due to wind.

We had very, very little rain.

Can't see any spring larval damage. Anything a pigeon even looked at got mauled by pollen beetle.

I think 1.4t/AC over the whole block would be a good result.

 

[teslacoils]

This year will not plan to drill any, but if we have any nice seedbeds end August and a good half inch of rain on the scanner will drill 5kg from the heap and see.

 

[teslacoils]

Would obviously pay royalties.

 

[Luke Cropwalker]

We started playing on 16th August through to 31st August. 1/2 subsoiler on 45cm rows with hybrid Aquilla seed. 1/4 subsoiler on 60cm rows with DK exsomething seed. 1/4 normal vaddy drill into prepared seedbed using 5kg farm saved django. All rolled at least twice. All had 30kg n as dap in the seedbed. All that grew. That's about 650ac

We wrote off 150ac after wheat and 100ac after fallow all conventional drilled with hybrid seed.

Most of the failed came about from a decision to stop spraying insecticide on the grounds of "they are probably resistant anyway". This was an error. We probably made three passes of chem on the good stuff - you simply can't get over the stuff quick enough with close to 900ac without a dedicated sprayer and man. Stuff sprayed at night was better. Didn't help the number of spray days was low due to wind.

We had very, very little rain.

Can't see any spring larval damage. Anything a pigeon even looked at got mauled by pollen beetle.

I think 1.4t/AC over the whole block would be a good result.

If you have taken 400ac to harvest out of 650ac I would call that a good result in very dry conditions. Out of interest did you leave a long stubble on the subsoiler drilled area? It looks to me like there are a lot of beetles around currently, pressure could be higher than last year but, as we all know a decent rain at the right time can make a massive difference.

 

[Zippy768]

Ploughed all ours and have the best looking osr crop we have had for a long time. No insecticide applied.
Friend 7ish miles away must of sprayed his 3 times during early growth.....he has a full crop now tho

 

[DrWazzock]

Our worst here was after bare fallows that had been recreationally cultivated to chit and kill BG. Completely ineffective due to drought. LEft a cobbly dried out seedbed. Won't make that mistake again.

The establishment moisture levels were about as bad as they could be though. Everything was against it.

Best was baled, raked and DD. The beetles didn't seem to like the barley awns on the ground.

 

[Northdowns Martin]

Appear to see some success from adding Berseem clover to mix and upping seed rate of osr. Biggest key is getting as even and vigorous germination as possible. Going to try undressed seed this year in attempt to get it even quicker out the ground.

Should have added only added clover to conventional varieties and not Clearfield hybrid which got hit hardest by beetles although we didn’t apply any insecticide

 

[teslacoils]

If you have taken 400ac to harvest out of 650ac I would call that a good result in very dry conditions. Out of interest did you leave a long stubble on the subsoiler drilled area? It looks to me like there are a lot of beetles around currently, pressure could be higher than last year but, as we all know a decent rain at the right time can make a massive difference.

We have 650 AC left out of 900. However, both the wheat and barley after the failed osr looks great due to really nice seedbeds.

All straw baled this time.

 

[Hindsight]

We started playing on 16th August through to 31st August. 1/2 subsoiler on 45cm rows with hybrid Aquilla seed. 1/4 subsoiler on 60cm rows with DK exsomething seed. 1/4 normal vaddy drill into prepared seedbed using 5kg farm saved django. All rolled at least twice. All had 30kg n as dap in the seedbed. All that grew. That's about 650ac

We wrote off 150ac after wheat and 100ac after fallow all conventional drilled with hybrid seed.

Most of the failed came about from a decision to stop spraying insecticide on the grounds of "they are probably resistant anyway". This was an error. We probably made three passes of chem on the good stuff - you simply can't get over the stuff quick enough with close to 900ac without a dedicated sprayer and man. Stuff sprayed at night was better. Didn't help the number of spray days was low due to wind.

We had very, very little rain.

Can't see any spring larval damage. Anything a pigeon even looked at got mauled by pollen beetle.

I think 1.4t/AC over the whole block would be a good result.

''They are probably resistant anyway''

I collected flea beetles from a few fields (interesting nocturnal exercise!) and submitted to Rothamsted for testing. All bar one field were 100% sensitive to Lambda Cylohathrin. One field had 50% showing some level of insensitivity / resistance. Spraying at night just after dusk seemed key. And repeat spraying on following nights, all of which goes against the no spray discussions often on the forum.

 

[chaffcutter]

Out crop judging this week, saw some good OSR crops, several of which had been sprayed for flea beetle at least once, I was told that a neighbour of one such crop had sown his with berseem clover and had very little damage with no spraying.

Ours had no sprays and only minor damage. Seems to be very regionally different in degrees of infestation.

 

[GeorgeK]

There's plenty round here. I put some nectar/pollen down in the spring after OSR, FB had all the volunteers. So much for 'peak migration period', if it's hot and dry there will be problems. We will have to make decisions like they do in Oz, only drill if there's a moist seed bed and rain forecast otherwise don't bother

 

[teslacoils]

''They are probably resistant anyway''

I collected flea beetles from a few fields (interesting nocturnal exercise!) and submitted to Rothamsted for testing. All bar one field were 100% sensitive to Lambda Cylohathrin. One field had 50% showing some level of insensitivity / resistance. Spraying at night just after dusk seemed key. And repeat spraying on following nights, all of which goes against the no spray discussions often on the forum.

Yes. In hindsight we should have kept spraying. But at the same time when you hear about crops turned into spring barley in marvh I'm generally pleased we make the decision to knock them on the head early on. First loss and all that.

But the risk in osr has now got too great for me. Like I said, the plan is for none with perhaps 100ac max depending on weather.

 

[Wheatonrotty]

The odd bits that have survived round us are the ones that had enough moisture to get away quickly. we drill some for a neighbour and while we baled our straw his was chopped and I think this held the moisture enough for it to grow, his is ok ours ,drilled around the same time, was written off in the autumn. OSR is going to be an opportunistic crop for me. If there's moisture about I'll give some a go.
On seed rates I have heard some bits about lower seed rates giving thicker stems which can then cope with the larvae eating the middle without killing that branch.

 

[texelburger]

Went to a trials day and someone mentioned there had been some success with spraying garlic.Flea beetles work off smell and,apparently they don't like garlic.Not tried it myself though.

 

[Luke Cropwalker]

Some interesting posts already, keep them coming the more the better.

 

[T Hectares]

My surviving OSR all had poultry muck, the failed had DAP...
Drilling into an established Spring Barley cover crop has worked with spring OSR, some crops further north of me were wiped out this spring, mine had no insecticide used, a nearish neighbour tried this on some kale, which normally gets mullered, but established well

Visited a farm this spring which had great success with mustard/Clearfield.

 

[robbie]

Nutrition is key. My osr was drilled on 17th August into pigtailed spring barley stubble with a normal suffolk coulter drill using fss elgar at 5 kg/ha. It all came up and looked marvellous with next to no fb damage.

Due to a cockup spreading the started fert by Jan the 6-9 metres behind the tramlines were looking hungry and this is where fb got into the crop and hit it hard late on. These areas then got mullered by pigeons and them pollen beetle. In the end I had to spray for pollen beetle just to give these areas a chance to set some pods.

If I grow some next year (depends on rotation and beet price) I'll establish it exactly the same as last year but ill make sure nutrition is tip top. From what I've seen over the last couple of years autumn nutrition and PH is everything, get that right and id say you'd be pretty sure of a decent crop come harvest.

 

[teslacoils]

These areas then got mullered by pigeons and them pollen beetle. In the end I had to spray for pollen beetle just to give these areas a chance to set some pods.

Everything that had pigeons that didn't get a spray for pollen beetle is knackered. Seen plenty of little sticklike headlands next to trees.