Insight Focus
- In this series, we’re following farmers around the world.
- We’ll look at what they’re up to on the farm, hear their concerns, and celebrate their triumphs.
- Here’s the link to the farmers’ bios in case you missed them.
What Have You Been Up To, Hugh?
We’ve harvested our sugar beet!
Every machine we own broke down, though. In my experience, whenever I look over the hedge, the neighbouring farmer is proceeding at pace, and then there’s me.
Anyway, we mended the broken items and are now ready for the spring.
Having caught COVID at a sugar conference, I seem to have slept through three major storms and the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. We’re now faced with highly volatile commodity prices for both inputs and outputs. So, as we move into spring, organic manures will be applied to limit the need for bagged fertiliser. Ammonium nitrate is also being applied to encourage growth to winter crops. For spreading, we do deep core soil tests to calculate nitrogen requirements.
What Stage Are Your Crops At?
The average temperature here has been about 1°C higher than normal and so our winter crops have continued to grow. Oil seed rape looks particularly forward, and wheats are well tillered.
Miraculously, Defra (the Ministry for Agriculture amongst many other things) has granted the use of neonics on sugar beet seed too. This will delay the arrival of seed on farm but makes growing the crop less risky.
What Are Your Ambitions for the Year?
I want to steer my business through what’s likely to be two to three years of unutterable chaos and still be standing afterwards.
For more information on Czarnikow’s beet pricing tool, please contact CHargraves@czarnikow.com
Other Insights That May Be of Interest…
The World Needs More Sugar…Can Europe Help?
Explainers That May Be of Interest…
