IN BRIEF

8 March 2002

IN BRIEF

&#8226 WILL you be drilling sugar beet on turning headlands this spring? Typically yields are 20-50% less. Averaged across the whole rotation having such areas in permanent set-aside would increase profit by £9/ha, says IACR-Brooms Barns Mike May. Similarly wet holes, shaded, or grazed areas would be better not cropped, he says.

&#8226 DONT just let it sit there, do something is the message from Mike May, of IACR-Brooms Barn, to growers on weed beet. Control of low populations rarely gives an economic return, but prolific seeding and long dormancy means bolters and true weed beet must not be ignored. "I regard it almost as a stealth weed in the way it creeps up."

&#8226 UK dirt tares are the lowest in Europe. Averaging just 6.5% by weight delivered to factory, UK figures for harvest 2001 were just ahead of Swedish, Spanish and Austrian dirt tares, all at 7%. The figures, based on the CEFS campaign survey 2001, show France delivered most soil to its factories, at 20%. &#42