Now is the time to look for opportunities to sow oats for fodder, as it is always an excellent choice for March or April sowing. Followup rain throughout April is looking likely in 2007, but oats is pretty robust even if we do get a brief dry spell.

Now is also the time to start monitoring all fodder or lucerne stands for early hatchings of lucerne flea and aphids. If they’re not there, don’t spray. Adding an unwarranted pesticide is not insurance, it’s a waste.

Don’t be in too much of a hurry to sow winter wheats in early or mid April, no matter how tempting, due to the risk of getting Wheat Streak Mosaic Virus. Two major factors that increase the risk of this potentially devastating disease are early sowing and grazing by stock.

The 2006 drought wasn’t favourable for anything and that includes the build-up of Take-all. This year Take-all could carry over on favourite hosts such as barley grass and brome grass start to build up.

If host weeds are present in a cereal crop, then treatment of wheat seed is an option. Winter-cleaning in July of host grasses in pastures is a far more effective disease break for cereal crops than spraytopping in September and October to reduce the seed set of weeds.

Check to see the revised Stripe Rust resistance rating of all of your wheat varieties in the NSW DPI 2007 Sowing Guide. Seed treatment upfront is a very real option for all wheat varieties rated either 1, 2, 3 or 4. Also plan on spring foliar sprays for susceptible varieties and stay posted for disease alerts as the stripe rust story unfolds as plant pathologists monitor the situation.

Before embarking on foliar spraying of fungicides you should seek agronomic support tailored to the variety, the paddock and the season as recommendations change from one season to the next.

With a forecast of a wetter year than average and indications that both autumn and winter will be wet, this could be a big year for the blackleg disease in canola. We now have a suite of new canola varieties with high blackleg resistance to choose from and the option of seed treatment for blackleg control.

Sclerotinia in canola this year is an unknown, as its development needs timely spring rainfall at the right temperature and plant growth stage.

In general terms, think ‘wet’ in 2007. Clean out any drains to dams or to drain water off paddocks and consider suitable crop options in those ‘wet’ paddocks and sow them first. Any lime or gypsum that was spread in last year should start working after rain. Protect groundcover on those vulnerable paddocks that ‘wash’ the easiest.

If you cannot afford to super pastures but need the feed, for cashflow reasons consider half rates for autumn and maybe half later, before spring growth.