Beet, what am I doing wrong?

Colin

Member

Location

Perthshire

• Nov 14, 2017

• #1

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.

 

Brisel

Member

Arable Farmer

Location

Midlands

• Nov 14, 2017

• #2

Weed control? Any disease? Any fungicides? How good was the establishment?

 

F

franklin

New Member

• Nov 14, 2017

• #3

Sunshine and heat?

 

spin cycle

Member

Location

north norfolk

• Nov 14, 2017

• #4

get soil tested by fert company and get 'tailor made' seedbed blend.....other than that ..harvester losses?

 

Colin

Member

Location

Perthshire

• Nov 14, 2017

• #5

Brisel said:

Weed control? Any disease? Any fungicides? How good was the establishment?

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Nice and clean for weeds, leaves were green until harvest, two escolta used. I should have got a leaf tissue done.

 

phil

Member

Location

Wexford

• Nov 14, 2017

• #6

Why plough down fert
Surely better incorporated?

 

Colin

Member

Location

Perthshire

• Nov 14, 2017

• #7

spin cycle said:

get soil tested by fert company and get 'tailor made' seedbed blend.....other than that ..harvester losses?

Click to expand...

I get the soil tested then use straights or fibrophos, correct pH as well. Use trace elements.

 

spin cycle

Member

Location

north norfolk

• Nov 14, 2017

• #8

Colin said:

I get the soil tested then use straights or fibrophos, correct pH as well. Use trace elements.

Click to expand...

salt?

 

Colin

Member

Location

Perthshire

• Nov 14, 2017

• #9

static said:

Sunshine and heat?

Click to expand...

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.

 

M

marshfarmer

Member

Mixed Farmer

Location

Norfolk

• Nov 14, 2017

• #10

More seed and muck oh and lift in Feb

 

Colin

Member

Location

Perthshire

• Nov 14, 2017

• #11

Chicken litter

 

W

Wonky

New Member

• Nov 14, 2017

• #12

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

 

ollie989898

Member

Location

Hanging from a twig, in a deep sleep.

• Nov 14, 2017

• #13

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

• Nov 14, 2017

• #14

ollie989898 said:

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.

Click to expand...

Light silty land that slumps so.plough and press in march.

 

Colin

Member

Location

Perthshire

• Nov 14, 2017

• #15

Wonky said:

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

Click to expand...

I don't know they are high DM so I assume not much different. Hard to find comparative yields between varieties as well.

 

W

whitefox

Member

Location

central scotland(the very wet bit)

• Nov 14, 2017

• #16

what is your target yield?

 

Flat 10

Member

Arable Farmer

Location

Fen Edge

• Nov 14, 2017

• #17

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.

 

Flat 10

Member

Arable Farmer

Location

Fen Edge

• Nov 14, 2017

• #18

Sorry just read properly. Does early april correlate to early mid march down here? I don't know.

 

W

Wonky

New Member

• Nov 14, 2017

• #19

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

• Nov 14, 2017

• #20

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.