Pesticides praying of sugar beet

Katie59

Actually Sugar Beet is not lucrative, if you have good enough soil close to a sugar factory it is a worthwhile break crop, controlling pests and weeds is very demanding so it’s a high risk crop.

Oh.

I'll tell my farmer his profits are not what you'd find suitable. Perhaps he'd sell his farm land for housing instead.

Norah

Katie59

Actually Sugar Beet is not lucrative, if you have good enough soil close to a sugar factory it is a worthwhile break crop, controlling pests and weeds is very demanding so it’s a high risk crop.

Oh.

I'll tell my farmer his profits are not what you'd find suitable. Perhaps he'd sell his farm land for housing instead.

Houses are certainly a profitable crop if you have land bordering a town or village, many diversified enterprises make money too, food production makes very little. Almost all farms now have diversified additions, even if it’s B&B in the farmhouse.

Next question, why do farmers carry on - answer, many dont, they stop farming and rent the land to a neighbour who wants to expand and spread his overheads further. Younger generations just don’t want the long anti social hours, livestock is worst because you are looking after them 24/7, arable is better because you can do other work in between to pay the bills.

I wasn’t suggesting that sugar beet is a particularly lucrative crop, Katie, simply making the point that if a farmer stops growing it as Philippa would like him to do, he has to replace it with something no less profitable.

Germanshepherdsmum

I wasn’t suggesting that sugar beet is a particularly lucrative crop, Katie, simply making the point that if a farmer stops growing it as Philippa would like him to do, he has to replace it with something no less profitable.

Sugar beet is not particularly lucrative.

However, in rotation with fields of other crops, it's a good source to amending the soil and resting the soil.

Best soil for beets near a sugar production facility? Beets make sense.