Saturday, April 27, 2024
The Latest

Packed with potential

Avatar photo
Farmers Weekly
September 10, 2014
New fodder beet varieties appear packed with potential for higher yield and feed value. Three new grazing varieties of fodder beet were included in trials by DLF Seeds, alongside the nine types already available on the New Zealand seed market. DLF Seeds technical manager forage Gavin Milne said the new varieties, developed in Europe and not yet sold in NZ, performed favourably in this year’s trial, ranking first, second and fourth for yield. “That shows our plant breeders are moving ahead with each new generation of variety,” Milne said. The trials were done on commercial farms, alongside commercial fodder beet crops in Canterbury, Otago and Southland – areas where fodder beet is predominantly grown.
58-beet30-2
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Trial crops were planted in October or November, depending on when the farmer was sowing their own crop. From then on, the farmer applied the same management to the trial fodder beets as his own crop.

‘We can’t say there’s any advantage in any one of these three treatments, so there’s no need for farmers to change from their current practice.’

At harvest in May, every plant was lifted out. The leaf was separated from the bulb. Bulbs were cleaned of dirt and cut at ground level to compare and weigh the parts of the bulb from above and below the ground.

Samples of bulb from each variety were measured for drymatter (DM) percentage.

The results showed significant differences between varieties.

Across all three sites, the average yield difference between the highest and lowest yielding fodder beet was 6.3 tonne/ha. Based on a conservative value of 25 cents kg/DM that equated to a $1500/ha income difference, Milne said.

Considering sowing, treatment and harvest costs were the same, and no difference in the cost of seed for the highest and lowest yielding fodder beets, there was a substantial amount of extra money to be made by choosing the best variety.

Leaf disease and tolerance to leaf disease were measured in this year’s trial. Milne said they found a close correlation between disease tolerance and higher yields.

“It may be one of the things that contributes to the yield difference between varieties.”

Drymatter percentage in the bulbs also varied between each variety.

Trial results were presented during a series of seminars in July. For full results, contact your seed retailer or DLF Seeds.

Lifting beets compared

The Otago fodder beet trial conducted in February 2014.

DLF Seeds did its first comparative fodder beet trials in 2013.

DLF Seeds technical manager forage Gavin Milne said there had been a lack of published data on performance of different fodder beet varieties.

“Several had been sold to farmers for a number of years, but with no information of how one compares to another for yield and other factors,” Milne said.

“We wanted to find out where our varieties stood in performance compared to others.”

Milne said DLF Seeds had a large fodder beet breeding programme in Europe and the company was regularly bringing out new varieties which needed testing in NZ first before a decision was made on whether their performance warranted entry into the market.

Varieties that performed markedly better than others in Europe did not necessarily stand out in NZ conditions.

Last year’s trial found only a slight variation in proportion of the bulb above and below the ground, but a strong correlation between drymatter percentage in bulbs and higher yield.

It also looked at utilisation of the bulb above and below ground, as Milne said there had been some misunderstanding around that. Fodder beet is quite loosely rooted in the ground making it easy for stock to pull out.

‘Last year after grazing 
there was almost nothing 
left behind and no difference in varieties in terms of utilisation.’

“Last year after grazing there was almost nothing left behind and no difference in varieties in terms of utilisation.

“We’ve taken videos of cattle eating the leaf then pulling the bulbs out on to the ground. That’s why fodder beet gets utilised to such a high percentage.”

Last year’s trial found no difference in drymatter between the part of the bulb above ground and the part below ground.

Palatability for sheep was also investigated last year finding no difference in palatability between 10 fodder beet varieties, all of which contained about 60% sugar.

“The only thing that affects the profit of a farmer in terms of which variety they use comes down to the yield of the variety compared to others.”

Further trials will be done next year, including at North Island sites. Milne said that until now about 90% of fodder beet grown was in the South Island but the crop grew well further north.

It was easy to manage, was reasonably tolerant of dry conditions, and responded well to hot summer temperatures.

“For the first time in the North Island farmers have the opportunity to comfortably grow 20-30 tonne drymatter feed crops, which is up to 10 times what they would be able to grow from grass pasture.

“The feed value of that 30 tonne is extremely high.”

While fodder beet was initially grown more for dairy cattle fodder beet was a flexible option for finishing sheep and cattle, and providing a high-quality feed for in-fawn hinds, Milne said.

Fodder beet could be grazed all through winter until November and even started growing again when conditions warmed early in spring.

Total
0
Shares
Share 0
Tweet 0
Share 0
Share 0
People are also reading