Fodder Beet.....winter hardy?
- Thread starter Old Tup
- Start date
borderterribles
Member
- Location
- South Shropshire
Not sure if there are more Winter hardy varieties about now, but when I wanted to grow them to graze with dairy cows, I couldn't find a seed supplier who was confident enough to sell me the seed. I seem to remember that the variety that grew with the greatest proportion of the root above ground level, therefore the most suitable for cows to graze,was amongst the least Winter hardy
- Location
- Cornwall.
Varieties which have a higher proportion of root in the ground resist frost better something like "Blizzard" but these types are more suited to lifting.
- Location
- West Wales
You want a high DM variety like blizzard (22% DM) if doing anything with them post Christmas but their not ideal for grazing as their 80% of the root is below the surface.
I have grown a few energy beet like Gerty and Lizzy (enermax might’ve been another) and they grew a lot further out of the ground and were also high DM beet, I was only bottom lifting and not grazing but blizzard out yielded every other variety I tried to grow over 6 years - all January-March lifting and i’d Grow 2 acres of 5/6 trial varieties every year.
Be aware of uniformity and gaps. A big beet is useless, you want everyone the same size as a pineapple, this means every plant is there, horrendously gappy varieties like kyros are good for grazing but plant seedling survival is bad (germination) and they end up looking like basketballs, meaning that 1 plant either side of that basketball hasn’t survived.
Where are you? If you don’t usually often get frosts you could try a 18-19% DM beet to have a wider choice of variety on what sticks out the ground the most and has best germination, if you do get a few frosts on a 18% DM beet it is fubared!
I have grown a few energy beet like Gerty and Lizzy (enermax might’ve been another) and they grew a lot further out of the ground and were also high DM beet, I was only bottom lifting and not grazing but blizzard out yielded every other variety I tried to grow over 6 years - all January-March lifting and i’d Grow 2 acres of 5/6 trial varieties every year.
Be aware of uniformity and gaps. A big beet is useless, you want everyone the same size as a pineapple, this means every plant is there, horrendously gappy varieties like kyros are good for grazing but plant seedling survival is bad (germination) and they end up looking like basketballs, meaning that 1 plant either side of that basketball hasn’t survived.
Where are you? If you don’t usually often get frosts you could try a 18-19% DM beet to have a wider choice of variety on what sticks out the ground the most and has best germination, if you do get a few frosts on a 18% DM beet it is fubared!
- Location
- N.Yorkshire
High dry matter varieties like Magnum, Blizzard, Nestor will stand frost best and like already said these types tend to grow below ground so not really suitable for grazing but ideal for harvesting and cattle feeding. Softer varieties like Feldherr and Monro are more suited to grazing as they grow out above ground but sadly these types don't stand frost so good due to them having more water content. That said it has to be a severe prolonged period of frost to loose a crop as It usually grows out in time so grazing not a problem. Varieties such as Merville, Jamon, Kyros are average dry matter, hard / soft and are suited to harvesting or grazing alike.
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
Have to agree with all of above. Higher DM varieties are more frost hardy, but also sit lower in the ground (so stock won’t eat half of the root without running a scuffle through). Higher DM varieties are also much harder, so can’t be as good for sheep’s teeth as softer/lower DM varieties.
Last year (& this) I grew a field of Geronimo (medium DM) and a field of Brigadier (low DM). We had 2 separate weeks of -10 on them. The Brigadier lost a lot of leaf, but not many roots were killed. The Geronimo wilted a bit but came back just as strong.
Third year of growing Geronimo now, and will definitely be putting it in again next year. Good yield, medium DM/halfway out of the ground for grazing and can be lifted for a cash crop if spare. Masses of leaf, which keeps going all winter, but ideally needs a scuffle through after grazing if you’re as tight on wasteage as me.
I pay a bit more for primed seed, which makes for a better germination, less misses and a more even sized beet. I reckon half a ton per acre extra pays for the priming, which i’m Sure we get through fewer small beets.
Not sure that any beet would survive a ‘proper’ winter like we haven’t had for a couple of decades though, so I’d be hesitant about relying on beet only for my winter keep. Higher up or further North, even less so.
Last year (& this) I grew a field of Geronimo (medium DM) and a field of Brigadier (low DM). We had 2 separate weeks of -10 on them. The Brigadier lost a lot of leaf, but not many roots were killed. The Geronimo wilted a bit but came back just as strong.
Third year of growing Geronimo now, and will definitely be putting it in again next year. Good yield, medium DM/halfway out of the ground for grazing and can be lifted for a cash crop if spare. Masses of leaf, which keeps going all winter, but ideally needs a scuffle through after grazing if you’re as tight on wasteage as me.
I pay a bit more for primed seed, which makes for a better germination, less misses and a more even sized beet. I reckon half a ton per acre extra pays for the priming, which i’m Sure we get through fewer small beets.
Not sure that any beet would survive a ‘proper’ winter like we haven’t had for a couple of decades though, so I’d be hesitant about relying on beet only for my winter keep. Higher up or further North, even less so.
- Location
- Ceredigion
Swedes are ok until mid April and you can graze the tops twice
- Location
- West Wales
I remember 2010 winter I lost 100acre of summo (18% DM) because the drilling contractor planted it in the wrong block of land a few mile from the sea and not on the coast where he planted blizzard, the Summo root was 75% rotten by January and I had to top it to the floor and still ended up dumping a lot of it, needless to say I bought my own drill the following year and the contractor wondered why?Have to agree with all of above. Higher DM varieties are more frost hardy, but also sit lower in the ground (so stock won’t eat half of the root without running a scuffle through). Higher DM varieties are also much harder, so can’t be as good for sheep’s teeth as softer/lower DM varieties.
Last year (& this) I grew a field of Geronimo (medium DM) and a field of Brigadier (low DM). We had 2 separate weeks of -10 on them. The Brigadier lost a lot of leaf, but not many roots were killed. The Geronimo wilted a bit but came back just as strong.
Third year of growing Geronimo now, and will definitely be putting it in again next year. Good yield, medium DM/halfway out of the ground for grazing and can be lifted for a cash crop if spare. Masses of leaf, which keeps going all winter, but ideally needs a scuffle through after grazing if you’re as tight on wasteage as me.
I pay a bit more for primed seed, which makes for a better germination, less misses and a more even sized beet. I reckon half a ton per acre extra pays for the priming, which i’m Sure we get through fewer small beets.
Not sure that any beet would survive a ‘proper’ winter like we haven’t had for a couple of decades though, so I’d be hesitant about relying on beet only for my winter keep. Higher up or further North, even less so.
What DM is Geronimo - I’m thinking of planting some for the sheep to graze next year.
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
Geronimo is 16/17% DM I think, but the DM figures seem to vary a bit depending where you look. If you look at the kiwi trials, the same varieties seem to vary by several % between sites too.
That would have been a painful loss! It’s a long time since I remember a turnip crop lost like that.
- Location
- N.Yorkshire
We've been caught out in the past with frost, but as we have our own harvester it's handy to be able to harvest a load at a time if necessary. If you harvest beet with any kind of frost content it melts down and rots in the heap very quickly indeed... Any frost contaminated beet here now is anaerobic digester fodder