Culture

Sugar Beet – essential facts

Fertiliser prices

Year	Nitrogen Euro/10 kg of nutrient	Phosphate Euro/10 kg of nutrient	Potash Euro/10 kg of nutrient
	0,75	0,75	0,38
	0,75	0,94	0,56
	0,75	0,94	0,64
	1,3	1,3	0,75
	2,07	3,38	1,69

1000kg of nitrogen fertiliser costs approximately 620 Euros when buying in bulk.

Price is the average for April of each year when buying in bulk. Nitrogen prices are average prices of nitrogen nutrient in anhydrous ammonia, nitrogen solution, and urea. Phosphate prices are the P2O5 prices of superphosphate. Potash prices are the K2O prices of muriate of potash.

Source: USDA, Economic Research Service

Sugar beet is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose. It is grown commercially for sugar production. The European Union, the United States, and Russia are the world's three largest sugar beet producers, although only the European Union and Ukraine are significant exporters of sugar from beets. Beet sugar accounts for 30% of the world's sugar production.

Sugar beet is a hardy biennial plant that can be grown commercially in a wide variety of temperate climates. During its first growing season, it produces a large (1–2 kg) storage root whose dry mass is 15–20% sucrose by weight. If the plant is not harvested at this time, then during its second growing season, nutrients in the root will be used to produce flowers and seeds and the root will decrease in size. In commercial beet production, the root is harvested after the first growing season.

In most temperate climates, beets are planted in the spring and harvested in the autumn. At the northern end of its range, growing seasons as short as 100 days can produce commercially viable sugar beet crops. In warmer climates, such as in California's Imperial Valley, sugar beets are a winter crop, planted in the autumn and harvested in the spring.

Sugar beet is one of the most chemical-intensive crops and is a challenging crop to produce. Sugar beets are highly sensitive to pests, diseases, and weeds from the time of planting through harvest.

Beets are planted from a small seed; 1 kg of beet seed comprises 100,000 seeds and will plant over a hectare (10 000 square metres) of ground.

Today, mechanical sowing, herbicide application for weed control and mechanical harvesting have removed the reliance on numerous workers.

Harvesting is now entirely mechanical. A roto beater uses a series of blades to chop the leaf and crown (which is high in non-sugar impurities) from the root. The beet harvester lifts the root, and removes excess soil from the root in a single pass over the field. A modern harvester is typically able to cover six rows at the same time. The beets are dumped into trucks as the harvester rolls down the field and delivered to the factory. The conveyor then removes more soil.

If the beets are to be left for later delivery, they are formed into clamps. Straw bales are used to shield the beets from the weather. Provided the clamp is well built with the right amount of ventilation, the beets do not significantly deteriorate. Beets that freeze and then defrost produce complex carbohydrates that cause severe production problems in the factory. In the UK, loads may be hand examined at the factory gate before being accepted.

Дата добавления: 2015-05-31