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With most sugar beet generally looking good after recovering from late drilling and a slow start, BBRO’s Beetfield demo day highlighted ways to maximise crop potential. Martin Rickatson reports.

As fertiliser prices hit record highs last year, many farmers were forced to rethink their crop nutrition programmes.

With harvest progress falling behind and increased reports of lodged crops, growers continue to face challenging conditions.

NFU crops board chairman Matt Culley is a fourth-generation farmer from Hampshire working in partnership with his parents and brother.

Promoting diverse colonies of soil biology to improve plant health is something most regenerative farming systems are based around. And while biology cannot offer consistent control of pests or disease like an agrochemical might, its use is an important piece of the integrated crop management puzzle.

Alex and Joanna Wilcox live and farm with their three sons at Hill Farm near Downham Market on the Norfolk County Council Stow Estate. Covering 240 hectares of Fen silty clay loam, they grow winter milling wheat, winter feed barley, spring malting barley, spring beans and sugar beet.