NFU Sugar has rejected claims made by environmental campaigner, George Monbiot, that it was ‘secretly lobbying the Government to allow neonicotinoid pesticides to be reintroduced after Brexit’.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is to assess a number of emergency authorisations granted by Member States for the use of neonicotinoids in sugar beet in 2020.
Oilseed rape plantings have fallen to their lowest level since 1986 at 318,000 hectares, according to AHDB’s Early Bird planting survey.
Despite good oilseed rape establishment across much of the country this season, growers should be alert to the possibility of significant larval damage in the spring, as cabbage stem flea beetle pressures may not have fallen.
The sugar industry has submitted an application for emergency authorisation of Cruiser SB (thiamethoxam) as a neonicotinoid seed treatment, to be used to protect the English sugar beet crop in 2021.
Significant differences have been identified in the resistance of leading commercial oilseed rape varieties to cabbage stem flea beetle (CSFB) feeding.
The UK’s winter linseed area is set to more than double on last year as growers look to alternative break crops to oilseed rape.
It has been a disappointing start to sugar beet harvest for Lincolnshire grower, Tilly Ireland who began lifting the 280-hectare crop slightly early after the Newark British Sugar factory opened on September 22.
Earlier drilled oilseed rape crops have managed to get up and away from early cabbage steam flea beetle (CSFB) grazing this season, but later drilled crops in some parts of the country are starting to suffer.
Early drilled oilseed rape (OSR) crops benefited from good weather conditions in August giving them an early boost ahead of cabbage stem flea beetle (CSFB) migration, although some crops have started to receive a hammering