UK: Change is coming to sugar beet

Sugar beet remains the only crop that has continued to deliver a year-on-year increase in yields for UK growers. This is down to two things; professional growers and a heavy investment in research and development by breeders, suggested SesVanderHave’s Ian Munnery when he caught up with Farmers Guide. After several reviews, announcements were made recently confirming that the UK seed account managed by NFU Sugar and British Sugar recognises the need to reform and improve the attractiveness of the UK to breeders. For growers and breeders alike, it promises to unlock and accelerate access to new, improved genetics and treatments, offering greater resilience and higher yields. In parallel, both NFU Sugar and British Sugar recognised that BBRO trials should provide better information to inform grower choice by testing the physical finished individual seed lots that growers are actually sowing on farm and mirror commercial growing practice. “Both quantum changes are long overdue and ...