BeetCast

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.

Whilst weather stopped play, for trials harvesting the BBRO team took some well earned time out and visited Beet Europe in France, and came home with a wish list.

We visit one of the BBRO trial sites to see the impact of Virus Yellows on varieties available for drilling in 2024 and also discuss some of the exciting findings regarding new material being tested for future use.

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.

With the sugar beet seed order being imminent, we discuss what to look for in variety traits and how to use this knowledge to shape your choices for the 2024 crop.