Sowing beet will be on many people’s minds over the coming days and weeks. There are plenty of varieties to choose from. The variety you choose may be dictated by its end-use, from high energy beet to a crop for grazing in-situ. In other words, it is very versatile.
Two varieties will no doubt be the most common among regular growers; they are Enermax and Magnum. Magnum has established itself as an extremely popular variety for its consistent yield and dry matter percentage.
Enermax has an extremely high dry matter yield and comes from the same line as Magnum.
In Goldcrop trials, Alisha exhibited a relative yield of 122 – compared to Enermax’s 109 and Magnum’s rating of 100. All three of these are white beet.
Gahan and Rosalinda are sugar beet varieties with a relative dry matter yield rating of 106. Both were trialed by DLF in Co. Carlow from 2017 to 2019 and exhibited a mean dry matter yield of 18.4t/ha (Gahan) and 18.3t/ha (Rosalinda) over the three harvests.
Acker sugar beet followed close behind, with a relative dry matter yield score of 104.
- Bangor;
- Blaze;
- Blizzard;
- Bolero;
- Brick;
- Cagnotte;
- Feldherr;
- Geronimo;
- Jamon;
- Ribambelle;
- Robbos.