Crops which are being planted at the moment will take longer to emerge and once emerged they will take longer to establish.
 

This makes them much more vulnerable to infection from seed-borne and soil disease and increases the importance of planting

seed treated with Raxil if planting barley or Raxil+Galmano if planting wheat.
 

Raxil is the standard seed treatment for protecting against smuts and bunts and Galmano provides wheat with protection from

stripe rust infection through to GS30.
 

It is tempting to think that with the colder temperatures aphids will not be flying and therefore crops will not be at risk from Barley

Yellow Dwarf Virus (BYDV) infection.
 

It only takes a short sunny period though to get aphids moving and with the high incidence of BYDV evident in crops last summer

there is an increased risk that aphids will be carrying the virus this autumn.
 

This is why it makes sense to continue to treat crops with Poncho. Poncho starts work immediately and provides a protective halo in the soil around the seed.
 

Poncho is then taken up by the roots and transported systemically throughout the plant providing protection from aphids, and therefore BYDV infection, to GS21.
 

Weed control is also critical. For crops being planted now make sure that Firebird is applied straight after planting, before the crop and weeds have emerged, to a firm, moist seedbed with clods no larger than three cm.
 

Firebird provides protection against many weeds including vulpia hairgrass, annual poa  and field pansy and will help your crops get off to the best possible start.
 

Crops that were planted earlier, especially those planted in late March through to early April, will now be well established with many starting to tiller.
 

Poncho will now have done its job and to maintain protection against BYDV infection consideration should now be given to applying a foliar insecticide.
 

Likewise, for these early planted crops, it will be important to keep an eye open for weed emergence following the application of

Firebird.
 

If weeds are found then these can be controlled with an application of Othello OD in wheat and Hussar in barley with both Othello

OD and Hussar providing control of a broad spectrum of weeds.
 

It might not seem the most important job just now, it certainly isn’t the most pleasant, but time spent paddock walking to

monitor crops now will pay dividends later in the year.