Main Objectives
The most effective way to produce low cost beet is to grow the contract tonnage on the minimum area and to deliver as much of the potential production as possible. This also means avoiding the use of expensive inputs on excess crop when contract tonnage is assured. However, not all growers are successful at consistently achieving the target contract tonnage. Some of this year-to-year variation is due to weather that is beyond their control. But some of the variation in yields and profitability is also due to practices that can be improved. The aim of this project was to provide growers with a tool to analyse their past performance so that they can separate the effects of differences between seasons from the changes in their ability to harness the latest technology to produce big yields.
Latest Report
Outcomes / Key Message For Growers And Industry
The Benchmarking Tool is running as a web-based system on a Broom’s Barn server, incorporating the Broom’s Barn Growth Model and capable of uploading anonymised contract information to create a projected yield for the current growing season for each contract. The grower can input farm-specific rainfall data to supplement the weather data supplied by the in-built database. The program also creates graphs showing past performance so the grower can instantly see how performance has ranked against the benchmark, and how the gap between actual and potential yields changes over the years the benchmark is run.
