Roughage tour Week 17
First fodder beets are coming up nicely
The first fodder beets for the 2021 harvest are already well above the ground. The crop of the Tarine variety germinated quickly on Ruben Marijnissen's plot. The dairy farmer in Nieuwerkerk in Zeeland sowed the fodder beets on April 9 and the plants were on top last Friday April 23.
Marijnissen is one of the participants in the Boerenbusiness Roughage tour† He has the fodder beet sown together with barley, so that any dust damage is limited. Rain is expected for next Thursday. Rain and frost often do not go together in spring, so that is good news for fodder beet and Marijnissen. Because now that the fodder beet is above the ground, it is more sensitive to frost.
''During frost there is a chance that the fodder beet will freeze and start to shoot. This means that instead of in the second year, if you leave the beet, it will already set seed in the first year. Then the plant thinks more about seed formation than about the beet and that is detrimental to the yield, says Antoon Verhoeven, roughage specialist in the Southwest Netherlands of Limagrain.
Erik van der Deure
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