BeetTech25: Details make all the difference in sugar beet

At this year’s BeetTech25 conference, the BBRO covered four key areas which interim head Professor Mark Stevens said are the details growers need to take heed of in order to grow a successful sugar beet crop. These are:

• Check farm hygiene – By managing potential host plants and residues for pest and disease infection, your IPM is taken care of, so ensure spoil heaps and overwintered weeds are either destroyed or removed
• Consider potential nematode risks – For example soil type, moisture and cropping history, and consider BCN tolerant varieties where necessary
• Timely cover crop destruction – This will lead to better seed bed consolidation, better establishment and, ultimately, yield
• Weed issues – What and where are your weed issues? Plan ahead to keep on top of these.

Farm hygiene

Prof Stevens explained that, with question marks over the future availability of plant protection products, and following DEFRA’s announcement in late January that the neonicotinoid sugar beet seed treatment Cruiser SB would not be available to growers in 2025, the need to use a diverse range of IPM approaches is vital. He pointed out that it’s better to deal with these issues before they establish, especially as growers can no longer rely on cold winter temperatures; although he pointed out that the cold weather at the beginning of 2025 will have helped somewhat.

“We anticipate that aphids will probably not start coming into the crop until about the middle of May, which is very different to where we have been in the last couple of years, when we were seeing aphids arriving in the third week of March or early April,” he said, explaining that this could alleviate aphid pressure on young crops at the cotyledon stage.

Should insecticide sprays be required, the two active substances available to growers are acetamiprid (Insyst) and flonicamid (Teppeki or Afinto). BBRO will be operating its aphid monitoring programme this season, which will extend to 46 monitoring sites.

Prof Stevens also said that BBRO is working with NFU Sugar to request emergency authorisation for an additional spray of Insyst.

It was mentioned that while there are potential new insecticides in the pipeline, it will take some time before they are made available to growers – not before 2026, at the earliest.

Where possible, site at-risk crops away from known sources of infection. Spoil heaps need to be regularly monitored for new growth and sprayed or removed, ideally.

Nematodes

Dr Alistair Wright discussed concerns around beet cyst nematodes (BCN) and free-living nematodes (FLN), with BCN now being seen in patches across all four sugar beet factory areas. He explained that for some farmers who have not previously suffered with nematode issues, the recent increase to cover crop mixes does raise the need for better understanding as some species may act as hosts to both nematodes and other pests and diseases.

Dr Wright explained that once BCN has infested the soil, it’s something “you won’t be able to get rid of”, with garlic-based nematicide Nemguard, used for docking disorder, not being a suitable option. Instead, he recommends growing a BCN-tolerant variety where BCN is a known issue. For the 2025 season, there are four BCN-tolerant varieties available to growers – Harryetta KWS, Katjana KWS, Daphna and Button.

Cover crops

While growers are keen to use cover crops for the soil health benefits they can bring, care must be taken when it comes to managing the green bridge effect they provide to both virus and aphids, warned BBRO applied crop scientist, Dr Georgina Barratt.

Timing of destruction is also a consideration. Some cover crops have higher frost susceptibility than others, and these differences can be seen within various cover crop mixes. One of the examples given by Dr Barratt was a black oat and vetch mix, where frost had destroyed the vetch leaving only straw, but the black oats survived.

For any growers using glyphosate for green cover crop destruction, Dr Barratt reiterated the importance of following stewardship guidelines.

BBRO offers a full Cover Crop Guide, which lists the various information regarding different cover crops and the risks and benefits to sugar beet growers.

Weed control

Pam Chambers of British Sugar discussed weed control in sugar beet. “Taking time to plan weed control before drilling is time well spent,” she commented, urging growers to consider the following:

• Look at the history of the field and note the weed species expected
• Review previous years’ weed control – what did and didn’t work? Will you use a pre-emergence herbicide?
• Conventional or SMART varieties? Monitor the presence or absence of BCN, ALS resistance and weed beet when making varietal choices for individual fields
• What products are available; should you use straights or formulated products, what best fits your situation and is there any cost benefit to one over the other?
• What will your weed control strategy cost be?
• Identify problem weeds to create a long-term control strategy across the farm
• Cultural control – what opportunities are there? Aim to use sugar beet as a ‘cleaning crop’.

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