News Sugar beets
Return of winter could cost sugar beet the head
At the start of this week, more than half of the Dutch sugar beet acreage had been sown. Immediately the locals got a bowl of snow and some frost on the head. Not only in the Netherlands, but also elsewhere in Europe, King winter reigns again. In France, that could cost 30.000 hectares of beets.
The snowfall in our country differs greatly per region. Especially in the east, from Groningen to Limburg, there was snow that also remained. Locally it is sometimes about 6-7 centimeters. The temperature is around or just below 0. Sometimes heavy hail fell in the last few days, which can be fatal for the seedlings. The current weather is particularly difficult for the beets. Onions can take more, but it is especially not good for early sown crops. It causes delays in emergence in all crops, which is undesirable.
Majority sown
Just last week, a huge blow was made with the sowing of sugar beets. Almost the entire beet acreage has been sown in Zeeland, South Holland, West Brabant and Flevoland. Nationally, Cosun Beet Company estimates the sown area at 61%. This is equivalent to almost 50.000 hectares of beets. They do not all need to be sown, it is expected, but it is especially exciting for the very early sown beets. They went into the ground at the beginning of March and were above the surface by 24 March. It concerns about 1.000 hectares.
Marcel Arts, sales manager sugar beet at KWS, expects the problems to be especially with those early crops. He is not so afraid of frost damage: "A beet can withstand -5 or -6 degrees. It looks bad, but snow insulates. We are lucky that it is also wet now, so that the ground does not freeze. dry frost is much worse, especially in the 2- or 4-leaf stage. The danger now lies mainly in the bolts. If it remains between 42 and 3 degrees 12 days after germination, there is an increased risk of bolts."
Significant frost damage in France
Winter has also made its re-entry elsewhere in Europe. In France, for example, it froze to -4 in the last few days, even though a large area of beetroot had already been sown early. The Institut Technique de la Betterave (ITB, the French IRS) fears that an area of 20.000 to a maximum of 30.000 hectares could be considered lost. According to lead researcher Ghislain Malatesta, this concerns 7% to 8% of the national acreage, writes Le Betteravier.
The differences per department are large. It depends on how early it was sown and how cold it was. The Loiret department has been hardest hit. According to ITB, up to 80% of the beets (15.000 hectares) can be considered lost.
Clap for grower
It is a major blow to the growers it affects. After a disastrous beet year, she hoped for improvement this year. For this purpose, they were given treated seed at their disposal thanks to the neonicotinoids exemption. According to Malatesta, it is unclear whether - under the current rules - overseeding with neonics-coated seed is allowed. Growers mainly fear the costs. About €250 of seed has been wasted and the late sowing date costs at least 10 tons per hectare of yield potential. "That is a financial loss of €500 per hectare," says Alexander Pelé. He is chairman of the local growers' association CGB.
What the consequences are of the cold weather in other European countries is not yet entirely clear. In Germany, too, the majority of sugar beet is now in the ground. Especially in the southwest and south of the country. It is also cold there at night. This also applies to Poland, where 35% of the beets have now been sown. In the United Kingdom, the mercury also dropped to around freezing, but the snow that fell did not last long. Many sugar beets have already gone into the ground there too.
Sufficient seed?
The chance that beets will also have to be sown in the Netherlands is increasing. Usually it concerns several hundred hectares in our country for various reasons. This number fluctuates every year, but Cosun recently took the figures on this offline. With the risk of overseeding all over Europe, the question is increasing whether there is enough beet seed available. In addition, not all desired varieties are usually in stock. That was a problem last year.
"In the Netherlands, KWS always has 1.000 hectares of seed in stock," says Arts. "The stock will be used until the beginning of May. When large-scale reseeding is required in Europe, the factory has to get back to work. The seed is there, but it must first be coated and pelleted. That takes 1 to 2 weeks "It is difficult for the seed companies anyway, because of the different derogations for treatment with the Cruiser SB seed coating. There was uncertainty for a long time, until just before sowing started."
Cold persists
In France there are still 2 really cold nights in the pipeline, but it won't get really warm after that either. A cold air current coming directly from the North Pole ensures that we have particularly cold weather at the beginning of April in our country, but also in Central and Southern Europe. The question now is when and if the warm weather will return. That depends on how the penny falls and whether a low-pressure area can dispel the cold. The weather models now disagree. A temperature between 1 and 19 degrees is possible. In short; it can literally freeze and thaw. Little warm spring weather is expected in the second half of April either. A sun-drenched and bone-dry spring is becoming increasingly unlikely, according to the meteorological services.
Niels van der Boom
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