Baseline information on agricultural practices in the EU ... - Europabio

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5 Cultivation 5.1 Sowing Seeds are produced in France and Italy. Farmers buy seeds either directly from the seed companies or via the sugar factories. Seeds are treated with insecticides and fungicides and pelleted resulting in boll shaped easy drillable seed of 3.5-4.5 mm diameter. Between 2.5 and 3.5 kg pelleted beet seed comprises 100,000 seeds (1 unit) and will plant over a hectare of ground (UK). In the Netherlands 1.1 units are used per hectare (Van den Brink, 2008). Sugar beet is sown from early March onwards and the operation is normally completed by early April (UK) (Table 11). The seeds are sown in rows using precision sowing machines, 45-50 cm wide, at a typical spacing of 18-21 cm and between 2.5 and 4.0 cm deep. Machines can handle 6 to 18 rows at a time. Sugar beet seed germination is affected by soil temperature and soil moisture. Germination does not occur until soil temperature reaches 3-5°C. Sugar beet seedlings begin emerging from the soil 10 days to two weeks after being planted (10 days at 12°C, 3 weeks at 7°C) (IRS). Usually a field emergence of 70-80% may be expected. Sometimes a field is re-sown when plant emergence is low. Early sowing prolongs the growing season, resulting in more sugar and reduces damage by nematodes and rhizoctonia because plants already show some resistance at the time this pest and disease develop (IRS). However, the incidence of bolters might increase when cold weather follows sowing. Plant densities depend on the soil type. On light soils more plants are preferred. The amount of seeds used is also determined by the time of sowing: early sowing requires more seeds to obtain the desired plant number per hectare. Finally weed and pest pressure may influence the amount of seed used (IRS). Table 11: Sugar beet sowing dates, average seed use and plant density (Sources: a KBIVB, b BSA, c IRS, d FSE, e ITB, f Beta Italia, g AIMCRA; h EuropaBio member companies) N: North; S: South Zone Member State Sowing dates Seed use (1,000 kernels/ha) A North B Centre Denmark - - - Estonia n/a Finland - - - Latvia n/a Lithuania - - - Sweden - - - Austria - - - Belgium a March – mid April - - Czech Republic - - - Germany b March – mid April - 80 Hungary - - - Ireland n/a Luxembourg n/a Plant density (1,000/ha) the Netherlands c March 1 – late April (re-sow: May) 110 70-90 Page 30 of 66
Zone Member State Sowing dates Seed use (1,000 kernels/ha) C South Poland - - - Romania - - - Slovakia - - - Slovenia n/a the United Kingdom d n/a: not applicable -: no data available Bulgaria n/a Cyprus n/a 10 March – 10 April 75-90 - France e, h Mid-March – end of April 105-124 e 105-130 h Greece - - - Italy f N: S: October/November Malta n/a Portugal n/a Spain g N: March S: October/November 5.2 Crop protection 5.2.1 Weed management Plant density (1,000/ha) 90-111 e 95-120 h - 90-110 100-120 80-110 Due to the slow appearance of the leaves in the first weeks after germination weed management is crucial until canopy closure. The plants are sufficiently developed to prevent weeds from growing about half June (NL). Although sugar beet is a biennial plant, some plants may build an inflorescence already in the first year (bolting). Also flowering weed beets may appear. These plants are detrimental to the crop in that they take away sunlight and make harvest difficult. Due to their high fibre content and high K/Na and NH3 content sugar extracting is hampered. Furthermore seed formation leads to volunteers in the following crop. Bolters may flower from June till August. Farmers walk their fields on a regular basis to remove them by hand. In the Netherlands elimination of bolters needs to be done before August 1 to prevent viable seed development. Volunteer beets are coped with in the following crops in the rotation (ITB). Weeds are controlled with herbicides in all European regions on almost 100% of the production area. The proportion of the area treated with herbicides as well as the average number of herbicide applications per field are shown in Table 12. Weed control is usually done by 3 to 6 applications of herbicides, the first application might be applied after sowing before the seedlings emerge (preemergence) and the rest in April, May and June until the crop closes (post-emergence). Sometimes more herbicide applications may be necessary (Van den Brink, 2008, La Filière Betteravière, FSE, Champion et al., 2003). A pre-emergence treatment is nowadays only rarely practiced (La Filière Betteravière) and only justified in case of high weed incidence (ITB). Precision spraying techniques to lower the amount of active ingredient, combined with inter-row cultivations, are developed as a component of weed control strategies as environmental pressures on the use of pesticides increase. In general, tillage systems without soil inversion rely more on efficient herbicide use. Page 31 of 66
Page 1 and 2: Baseline i
Page 3 and 4: 1 Introduction Under the current Eu
Page 5 and 6: 3 Sugar beet cultivation in Europe
Page 7 and 8: The distribution of sugar beet prod
Page 9 and 10: Table 2: Sugar and fodder beet acre
Page 11 and 12: Zone Member State Beet type 2010 20
Page 13 and 14: Zone Member State Number of holding
Page 15 and 16: Zone Member State Main weed species
Page 17 and 18: Zone Member State Main pest species
Page 19 and 20: Zone Member State Main diseases C S
Page 21 and 22: Figure 4: Distribution of BNYVV (so
Page 23 and 24: cytoplasm. For CMS to be expressed,
Page 25 and 26: Zone Member State Insecticide (% of
Page 27 and 28: On water erosion sensitive soils it
Page 29: Not only are the requirements of a
Page 33 and 34: Zone Member State Treated area (% o
Page 35 and 36: Active ingredient HRAC classificati
Page 37 and 38: Zone Member State Insecticides (% o
Page 39 and 40: Zone Member State Fungicides (% of
Page 41 and 42: The Sixth Environment Action Progra
Page 43 and 44: As an example to show the necessity
Page 45 and 46: Zone Member State Region C South To
Page 47 and 48: -: figure not available *: As data
Page 49 and 50: Table 20: Irrigation methods and so
Page 51 and 52: Zone Member Irrigation methods Stat
Page 53 and 54: Irrigation methods Irrigation sourc
Page 55 and 56: The main overall objective of EU wa
Page 57 and 58: Zone Member State C South 2010 2009
Page 59 and 60: 7 References The following table pr
Page 61 and 62: Crop Research Institute http://www.
Page 63 and 64: Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (LALLF M-V),
Page 65 and 66: akkerbouw en vollegrondsgroenten. P

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