The cool, dull summer has had a big effect on beet sugar content – Arable Farming

I can’t remember it being so hot in September before, but maybe it has been, and it’s just that the rest of the summer has been so cool and dull, so the contrast is playing tricks with my memory.

The plums are very ripe in the garden though, and have been picked and either made into jam or frozen for later. We’ve also been getting the cider ready from last year’s frozen juice for our own version of a wassail. We’re hoping the cider will help keep the neighbours happy when they’re helping to press this year’s crop. Although it’s looking okay, it is nowhere near the size of last year.

The cool and dull summer has had a big effect on the sugar content in the beet I’ve heard of being lifted, with 14% being quite common from the very earliest lifts, but hopefully that should increase with recent heat and sun. The early lift bonus has helped though, and some growers have decided to crack on and get some beet lifted, and on with the next crop of wheat.

The recent BBRO meeting I attended discussed different varieties and their disease resistance, although when looking at some of the scores on the Recommended List, they didn’t really reflect what I saw in the trials. So as always, it is important to look at crops.

It is very interesting that we are seeing significant levels of cercospora in some fields, even though we’ve not really had the weather to trigger the BBRO warning system, apart from the odd spot on the Suffolk coast. There was some discussion around whether the UK cercospora populations may be more adapted to our weather and the model may need adjusting going forward.

Beet cyst nematode was also a point of discussion, as a lot has been seen this season. It is one of the failings of the current ALS-resistant varieties that there is no BCN-tolerant variety yet, especially as field infestations of BCN seem to go hand in hand with weedy beet populations, but hopefully, this will be possible in the next couple of years.

It was good to see so many people attend the Eurofins blight open day, at what was an excellent event this season as the blight populations were higher than we’ve seen in recent years. There was also a lot of other leaf diseases, including alternaria, but also what looked like botrytis tome.

The main topics of discussion were managing blight with the current chemistry we have in light of the potential loss of mancozeb, and the changing resistance status of blight genotypes in the UK and mainland Europe.

There was a bit of new chemistry on display with the phosphonate group of chemistry looking to break through into the blight market shortly. Phosphonates bring a new mode of truly systemic chemistry that move quickly both to roots and leaves, so will be especially useful when applied early in the crop’s life.

There were several potato breeders at Eurofins and it was very interesting to see the effect of their varieties under full and half programmes and how genetics can help in giving effective blight control.

With all resistance traits, in potatoes or any other crops, it’s important not to use genetics in isolation, but to use an integrated policy that also utilises fungicides to protect and enhance the genetics.

Over-reliance on any one method of control, be that varieties or single-site fungicides, will inevitably lead to resistance being selected for. So we must always protect genetics and use them to enhance control, not as the sole technology. Over and out.