Written by cpm
Growing sugar beet has become a whole new ball game without the neonics. CPM sits in on a roundtable discussion with one of the top UK sugar beet growers and his technical advisers and finds out all is not roses, even at the top of the performance ladder. We’re planning beet in the rotation up until 2020, but beyond that is questionable. By Lucy de la Pasture Sugar beet is a crop that has always demanded close attention to grow well, but Norfolk grower Mark Means has taken that meaning to a whole new level. Like many growers he’s concerned about how farmers are going to feed the world with all the restrictions been forced upon them. “Have you seen ‘Eureka moments’ from the zoology department at Cambridge University?” he asks as we take our seats in the farm office. “They’ve been looking at the problem and suggest land sparing, where the most productive land is pushed for yield, is better for environment. “Then we could be saving land to put into environmental schemes,” he enthuses. “They’re saying that if we put the environment within the crop then we’re doing none of them a good service. It’s not doing…
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