Growing fodder beet for first time after AHDB meeting.

Jop said:

It’s hard to grow swedes like an arable crop anymore, one pre emergence for weeds and that’s all you can do about them. Found a mix of swedes and beet here seems to work well, treat the beet as an insurance policy for the swedes and then on a good year can always sell the beet

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Exactly the reason I grow beet. It’s an insurance against the unreliability of swedes and stubble turnips. Beet saved me in 2012, last year, and i’ll Be glad of it this year too.
I’m considering dropping swedes tbh, but I don’t think beet would do very well under Glastir management, whereas swedes sometimes do.

Forage Trader said:

Does anyone grow swedes as an Arable crop 50 k seeds to the acre and harvest them , or just chuck them on like a fodder crop

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Yes it’s the lack of regular spring rainfall that buggers it up here. (North Yorkshire) I think if you could direct drill them it may be more successful, moisture retention is the key.

I'd sooner grow beet because of the herbicide options, granted they aren't all that hot but at least you have something. Can really clean a field up nice with a good crop.

Has anyone used "Primed" Fodder Beet seed?

Great In Grass said:

Has anyone used "Primed" Fodder Beet seed?

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Yes, for the last few years. Costs about a tenner extra (per acre pack) but the germination & emergence is far more even ime, which especially makes a difference in a dry/catchy Spring. I worked out, on a fag packet, that it pays for the extra cost if we get half a ton per acre extra yield, which I think it has exceeded easily.

This year I have a 17ac field in beet, 12 in (primed) Geronimo and 5 in (normal) Brigadier. From past experience of those varieties and priming, I drilled the Geronimo at about 40k seeds/ac and the Brigadier at 50k seeds (pretty well negating the difference in seed price). There are far less misses in the Geronimo, which has led to a far more consistent crop where I expect the DM yield/ac to be far higher than the Brigadier. The Brigadieris further out of the ground and has some bigger beet either side of the misses, but fewer of them, despite the higher seed rate.

Priming is worth every penny ime.

It's OTE="neilo, post: 6630965, member: 348"]
Bigger bulbs & tops, as they have more space to grow out, much like those beets on the end of a row grow much bigger. Saving on seed is pretty negligible tbh, given the other growing costs, and would easily be outweighed if a thicker crop produced more DM/ha.

A local guy that likes to use his calculator, reckons DM yield per ha is increased with fewer, bigger beet. They d9 have longer to grow in most grazing situations, than sugar beet crops that are generally lifted earlier, and where most of the agronomy reccs originate. We don’t necessarily want the same thing from fodder beet crop to graze in situ though. I’d like as much top as possible for instance, as long as it stood a bit of cold weather ok.
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Its OK as long as you don't have a change of plan and decide to lift some .

digger64 said:

It's OTE="neilo, post: 6630965, member: 348"]
Bigger bulbs & tops, as they have more space to grow out, much like those beets on the end of a row grow much bigger. Saving on seed is pretty negligible tbh, given the other growing costs, and would easily be outweighed if a thicker crop produced more DM/ha.

A local guy that likes to use his calculator, reckons DM yield per ha is increased with fewer, bigger beet. They d9 have longer to grow in most grazing situations, than sugar beet crops that are generally lifted earlier, and where most of the agronomy reccs originate. We don’t necessarily want the same thing from fodder beet crop to graze in situ though. I’d like as much top as possible for instance, as long as it stood a bit of cold weather ok.

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Its OK as long as you don't have a change of plan and decide to lift some .
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I plan on lifting mine to sell, or as much as I can spare anyway. They don’t get big enough to be a problem ime, just bigger than they might have been if planted on top of each other.

The only massive beet I ever have are the Brigadier beet, where an odd one has grown in a bare patch. You couldn’t lift them anyway, you’d have to push them up with a fork I reckon.

Do cabbage stem flea beetle like eating swedes?

Laggard said:

Do cabbage stem flea beetle like eating swedes?

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Yes, especially early drilled crops ime, but later crops aren’t any safer now the seed treatments have gone. So instead, we have to go through several times with insecticides to kill everything. Crazy.