Growers face drilling dilemma

摘要

Making the right call in a challenging season is tough, and our Crop Watch agronomists have plenty of advice this week on the way ahead, with Patrick Stephenson urging northern growers to consider leaving wet fields fallow until spring instead of puddling in a poor crop.The cereal harvest has at last given way to the maize harvest in the West, and Giles Simpson reminds growers who are not putting wheat straight in behind it to take steps to preserve soil structure over winter.As is so often the case, drier weather in the East has seen growers make good progress, but the recent mild weather has turned Marcus Mann's thoughts to dealing with aphids carrying barley yellow dwarf virus.And it's not just the task in hand that is occupying the thoughts of Richard Harding, who has embarked on an ambitious project to look at the profitability or otherwise of conservation agriculture.