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XBEET®
- A new generation priming technology for sugar beet seed
Rapid emergence and field establishment are key factors
for the successful production management of a sugar beet crop.
Delays in early crop growth and development may be attributable
to a number of reasons, for example: cold, wet conditions
following planting, the formation of crusts and caps following
heavy rain, or fast drying out conditions due to rapid soil
warming and prolonged lack of natural precipitations. In any of
these situations, the more vigorous and fastest emerged plants
stand a better chance of facing the often transient yet
penalising conditions, which can result in heterogeneous final
stands, and affect yield qualities.
 The
development of Germain’s Advantage®/PAT® primed sugar beet seed
in the mid 1990’s demonstrated that the improved speed and rate
of field germination and uniformity of seedling emergence played
a significant part in minimising the effects of climatic
stresses after sowing: Germain’s primed seeds stood a better
chance to surmount such difficulties and establish a final crop
stand which was earlier, and more uniform. In both small plot
replicated trials and large scale grower evaluations carried out
in the UK, Continental Europe and the USA in the 1990’s and
early 2000’s, these benefits were recorded to yield, where
statistically significant improvements were noted for primed
sugar beet seed: grower strip trials confirmed over a period
spanning a decade, that the average gain in tonnes of beet per
hectare was 4%, and the sugar yield per hectare was improved by
5%.
The UK adopted Advantage sugar beet priming on its total
cropping area in 2007, and the treatment is now also capturing
significant sales in Continental Europe. The sugar regime reform
has ensured that now, more than ever, ‘Yield is King’, and that
cost efficient inputs which return many multiples in yield and
profitability benefits are adopted as rapidly as possible. |
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