[Marches Farmer]

Not just the pasture but also the (for want of a better word) lawn.  Yellow with occasional black streaks, and wet-looking, even when dried off by the wind.  My  neighbour's winter wheat is looking the same.  At first I thought my grazing management was at fault but I now suspect this is a disease.  It's decimating my available grazing, though, and my "emergency" grazing on the lawn looks even worse.

[big soft moose]

Going back 20 or so years to my time as a green keeper it sounds like either a really severe case of powdery mildew or one of the rusts (of which there are many).

Can you post a picture of some affected blades ?

The good news is that you can spray for both , the bad news is that because I was a greenkeeper rather than a farmer i don't know which of the things we used to spray are safe for livestock  ( I think we used to spray with  Concert 2 from Syngenta - but as i say I have no idea if this is livestock safe)

[Marches Farmer]

Thank you - I think you may be right about the rust.  I saw my neighbour across the valley spraying his winter wheat yesterday and that's what he said.  Unfortunately my fields are too wet and too steep to spray just now.  Goodbye to the hay stocks, then!

[pharnorth]

There is a lot of it about this year. I know some of our local farmers have been spraying fields for it

[big soft moose]

Its the weather .. wet but not that cold is a bugger for fungal diseases - we need some good solid frosts to clean up the pastures  (although to be fair we've had two last night and the night before so with a bit of luck that should do it)