Sugar Beet

Despite the unseasonably cold weather continuing across much of the UK, sugar beet growers must continue to monitor aphid migration closely to best protect crops until they reach the critical 12-leaf growth stage

A particularly cold April has put more pressure on sugar beet farmers than usual, making it vital that every possible action is taken to ensure yields are optimised and able to fulfil their potential. The key to achieving this? A robust nutrient management programme.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has issued an emergency authorisation (EA) for the use of InSyst (acetamiprid) on sugar beet.

A new seed treatment, launched in November 2020 at the digital CropTec show, is demonstrating impressive sugar beet yield improvements and substantially reduced dirt tare, in on-going trial programmes.

Farmers are expected to be able to use a product containing thiamethoxam for the treatment of sugar beet seed in 2021, under strict conditions.

The UK’s leading farm assurance body, Red Tractor, is urging farmers to engage in a consultation on how its farm standards should evolve.

The platform will initially be tested by a pilot group of growers as part of a year-long pilot programme.

NFU Sugar has urged the government to abandon its proposed tariff-free quota for raw cane sugar imports because of its potential to undercut British growers with sugar grown in ways that would be illegal in the UK, threaten the viability of a British success story and undermine the government’s commitment to developing countries.

British Sugar and NFU Sugar have concluded negotiations for one-year and three-year sugar beet contracts from 2021, including a ground-breaking new Virus Yellows assurance fund and an innovative futures-linked contract pilot.

As the first signs of rust (Uromyces betae) and powdery mildew (Erysiphe betae) are reported in crops, growers should prepare to make the first of two fungicide applications advised by the BBRO to protect yield potential.

NFU Sugar and British Sugar have today announced both a one-year and three-year sugar beet contract terms for the 2020/21 crop and beyond.