BBRO BeetCast

With a high Virus Yellows forecast and aphids expected around the 10th April we look at mitigation strategies to help growers protect the crop in 2024.

We join Simon Bowen and Stephen Aldis at a Drill Operators training day, to hear the latest info on improving crop population, establishment and ultimately yield through good preparation and drilling.

We also meet with 5 drill manufacturers; Grimme, Kverneland, Kuhn, Monosem and Vaderstad.

As many experienced harvester drivers will tell you there is a lot more to harvesting a good beet crop than you'd think. We spend some time in the cab with a new driver and carry out a harvester test to really put him through his paces - will he pass muster?!

First podcast of 2024. We look at a frequent grower question received during the 2023 campaign. Walking through the collection of data process at British Sugar with Perry Bateman and then hearing from Simon Bowen regarding some of the potential influences to low sugars and higher impurities.

Quite a few growers are using or considering the use of cover crops, but getting the species mix is only one consideration, you also need to plan for destruction particularly where followed by sugar beet. Roger Bradbury, sugar beet lead for Bayer Cropscience and Dr Georgina Barratt (BBRO) discuss the use of glyphosate.

Many of us have stood mesmerised at agricultural shows watching a robotic display and wondering if they have a place on the farm. Well Sentry Farming have partnered with Autonomous Agri Solutions and BBRO to test the theory in a commercial sugar beet field. We meet those involved to see how things have worked out in the first year of trial.

The crop is now surging ahead with good canopy cover across much of the growing region. With this in mind we look to our fungicide programmes to ensure the canopy remains healthy to optimise yield potential.