British Sugar's Early Beet Contract, announced in March this year, required beet to be lifted and delivered into the Bury St Edmunds factory between September 4-13 in return for a guaranteed £3000 per hectare.
Suffolk farmer Will Hitchcock was among the early lifters, starting his beet harvest earlier than ever before on September 1 and has lifted close to 200ha of his crop so far.
He says: "This far into the campaign, as we started lifting two to three weeks early, yields don't seem as exciting as what we are used to.
"Yields are between 60-70 tonnes per hectare but I would like them to be more like 80t/ha."
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Diluted sugar
As a result of the wet summer and good growing conditions, the sugar content has been diluted by the larger root weight with sugars averaging 16 per cent.
Mr Hitchcock recalls last year's sugar contents to have started high at 19 per cent, because of much smaller root weights caused by drought.
"Our agronomist has an analogy: if you imagine sugar beet like a cup of tea. As the cup gets bigger, you need more sugar in the cup to make it sweeter and that is what is happening with our increased root weights, the sugar gets diluted in the bigger cup.
"We are not overly excited about the sugar content so far, but we are hopeful for the main contract crop as it will have had much longer in the ground than the early harvest," he says.
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Large canopies
Sugar beet canopies are also larger this year and Mr Hitchcock is hopeful this will enable the crop to produce more sugar.
"Usually, we mulch the crop tops in the row but this year we are having to spread the tops at the sides due to the sheer volume. We are not used to this amount of canopy at this stage, as the last few years have been so dry, the top has just not been there."
With three of the four British Sugar factories currently processing beet and Cantley opening in October, Dan Green, agriculture director at British Sugar reports a positive start to the 2023/24 sugar beet campaign.
Expected yields
He says: "The Early Beet Contracts offered at our Bury St Edmunds site have fulfilled their purpose in enabling an early start-up at the factory, and we are currently in line with what we were expecting at this point in terms of yields and sugar content.
"As we progress through the campaign, we are pleased that the sugar beet crop is looking healthy, and we are expecting a return to normal yields this year. We wish all our growers and industry partners all the best for a continued safe and successful season."
