King’s Lynn, Norfolk, United
Kingdom
May 23, 2008
Marketed
since 2007 in the USA,
XBEET®
will make its first appearance in Europe for 2009 planting by UK
growers. Germain’s
pioneered its first generation of sugar beet seed priming
technologies under the brands Advantage and PAT in the mid 90’s.
These brands have enjoyed broad market exposure both in Europe
and the United States.
Germain’s quest for innovation in yield enhancing physiological
treatments has delivered a new standard in sugar beet seed
priming: XBEET. A totally novel technology, XBEET priming for
sugar beet was independently tested in the USA from the mid
2000’s.
The North American trial results showed that XBEET over the
course of the testing period delivered a substantial sugar yield
improvement of 4.8% over Advantage/PAT primed seed, and a
massive 12.9% increased yield over unprimed seed. XBEET delivers
a positive step change in the speed and uniformity of seedling
emergence and final crop establishment.
Recognised by some key players in the US beet sugar industry as
a valuable tool to secure early crop establishment and increase
yield potential, XBEET has in its first full year of
commercialisation already captured ca. 35% of the USA’s Red
River Valley beet area plantings, following a 6% capture in its
launch year. Ambitious targets for improved crop output in the
UK now also recognise the value XBEET can deliver, and the green
light is now given for UK growers to evaluate it in commercial
conditions for the 2009 planting season.
Véronique Heyes, Germain’s Business Director for sugar beet
comments: ‘Pressure on land use and availability, mounting
enterprise costs for growers all point to a single solution:
Maximising yield per acre. Cost effective inputs which have a
high return on investment have never been more important, and
XBEET fits extremely well as a valuable component in this
strategy’.
For more detailed information on XBEET please
visit
our feature on SeedQuest Seed Enhancements.
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