Beet, what am I doing wrong?

Colin

Member
Location
Perthshire
Growing beet for AD, finished harvest today, last year averaged about 60t/ha this year about 65, use the rb209 rates for p, k etc, sylvinite for salt, fibrophos for the rest of the base, plough it down and use liquid NS on top, up the N to 150 as no need to worry about impurities. Sow early April at 100,000/ha, keep the weeds out, use two fungicides and foliar feed it B, mg, MN.
Any ideas why we are struggling to get yield. The best ground is doing 70, which makes it an ok crop. I used a higher seed rate last year and the beet were very small so cut it back this season.
Any suggestions welcome.
 

Colin

Member
Location
Perthshire
Sunshine and heat?
I think this is a lot of it, we could maybe sow earlier but what about a late frost at establishment?
The better fields had to be irrigated to get germination, but the two middle of the road fields had excellent establishment without irrigation but are very light.
To be fair the 70t fields give me hope for the future.
 

Wonky

New Member
There's a thread on here recently about beet yields, is there much difference in AD varieties to conventional?? There has been some massive yields reported for conventional crop this season
 
Throw chicken muck at it.

The main issue with beet in my area this year was the drought beginning just as it was drilled.

Get the land for beet ploughed early and let the weather do the work.

If you had a serious trace element issue with beet you would have seen symptoms somewhere, they are normally very obvious.
 

Colin

Member
Location
Perthshire
Throw chicken muck at it.

The main issue with beet in my area this year was the drought beginning just as it was drilled.

Get the land for beet ploughed early and let the weather do the work.

If you had a serious trace element issue with beet you would have seen symptoms somewhere, they are normally very obvious.
Light silty land that slumps so.plough and press in march.
 

Colin

Member
Location
Perthshire
There's a thread on here recently about beet yields, is there much difference in AD varieties to conventional?? There has been some massive yields reported for conventional crop this season
I don't know they are high DM so I assume not much different. Hard to find comparative yields between varieties as well.
 

Flat 10

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Fen Edge
I don't think you are doing much wrong. Higher seed rate. Does the harvester driver know what he's doing? As I blather on every time you have a query can you view BBRO work on line (perhaps not as you won't be a levy payer will you) or steal someones copy of the beet growers guide. When you drilling? Difficult for us in East Anglia to judge how it compares to our 'typical' springs.
 

Wonky

New Member
i'm guessing your tonnage is a clean washed tonnage, if it's AD crop? Lot of people talk adjusted tonnage for conventional varieties, if they've got high sugar % can make a huge difference to tonnage talk!
 

Flat 10

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Fen Edge
Also a lot of people include B with the base fertiliser rather than foliar spraying as demands are high but deficiency should be easy to spot......
What was your establishment like? Guess it should be good with irrigation. And as @marshfarmer says lift later.
 

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