Beet Ireland

Don’t all markets have a cycle?

If one was to look at grain prices for the first time just a couple of years ago (or milk prices/beef prices in other years) you would run a mile from such enterprises.

I don’t think it’s wise to look at current sugar prices in isolation.

Agricultural commodities rise & fall, that’s their nature.

There’s no way that sugar beet will be as profitable as it was 20yrs ago - if it was that profitable then everyone would be at it.

Was out with a seed grower today. High ground close to rock. Good attention to detail. He had harvested 29.8tn/ac of Rosalinda beet (high DM sugar beet type). Rosalinda would be a relatively old variety. It was sown 5th May. Yield over a weighbridge.

Just my thoughts.
 
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CORK said:
Was out with a seed grower today. High ground close to rock. Good attention to detail. He had harvested 29.8tn/ac of Rosalinda beet (high DM sugar beet type). Rosalinda would be a relatively old variety. It was sown 5th May. Yield over a weighbridge.

Just my thoughts.
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Would there be any chance of accurate cost of production figures from that grower, or an average from a couple with similar attention to detail? I wonder what price per tonne beet would have to make to break even at that kind of yield.
 
Tippcon said:
Would there be any chance of accurate cost of production figures from that grower, or an average from a couple with similar attention to detail? I wonder what price per tonne beet would have to make to break even at that kind of yield.
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I could ask him. A number of growers on this forum would have quoted €8-900/acre. An excellent grower quoted €1000/acre to me last week.
Such cost doesn’t make the current mentioned sugar beet prices stack up.
 
CORK said:
I could ask him. A number of growers on this forum would have quoted €8-900/acre. An excellent grower quoted €1000/acre to me last week.
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I just can't understand why, if there has been a proper feasibility study done for a new factory and planning is at as advanced a stage as it appears, that nobody can come out and say "At current European sugar prices we would hypothetically be paying €XX per tonne for beet this year" and give everybody an idea of where they would stand. Surely they know what their projected processing costs would be, and what kind of margin they would want to return. Fair enough you can use the argument that sugar prices are cyclical and this could well just be a bad year, but there will always be good and bad years so I think it's only fair that potential growers would be afforded the opportunity to decide whether the bad years would be worth the risk.
 
What kind of average margin would a grower need to bother growing beet?
€350/acre? Leaving land cost out of it.

Let’s say a grower doing a good job with modern varieties, average yield 35tn/ac?

Growing cost of €900/ac?

€36/tn would be required on average.
 
gone said:
I still can't understand why if you grow it for the Celtic cow €40/ton cleaner loaded would it make sense to pay for the privilege to grow it for much less washed and tared?
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That is the real issue they are at nothing if they can’t significantly beet the fodder beet price and it doesn’t appear they can.
 
CORK said:
What kind of average margin would a grower need to bother growing beet?
€350/acre? Leaving land cost out of it.

Let’s say a grower doing a good job with modern varieties, average yield 35tn/ac?

Growing cost of €900/ac?

€36/tn would be required on average.
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Would you be a bit strong with a 5 year average of 35T an acre for sugar beet, lads would be happy averaging that with say enermax or magnum
 
Blackwater boy said:
Is it flea beetle that eats the beet also or what pest is it?
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Last few years around here has seen a big increase in underground pest attack, strips the roots of seedlings. Cruiser force gave limited control, Ground with less history of beet seems much less affected.
 
WestCorkBoy said:
Last few years around here has seen a big increase in underground pest attack, strips the roots of seedlings. Cruiser force gave limited control, Ground with less history of beet seems much less affected.
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Nematodes or soil complex I think is what they call that issue, no chemical controls those, usually caused by beet close in the rotation. The neonics control pests such as flea beetle or mangle fly i think.
 
Blackwater boy said:
Nematodes or soil complex I think is what they call that issue, no chemical controls those, usually caused by beet close in the rotation. The neonics control pests such as flea beetle or mangle fly i think.
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Fairly sure it’s not nematodes, there was a product to control them before my time used to be put on at sowing did it start with an a..,,.. can’t think of it. Think it might be Pygmy beetle similar type of damage anyway.
 
WestCorkBoy said:
Fairly sure it’s not nematodes, there was a product to control them before my time used to be put on at sowing did it start with an a..,,.. can’t think of it. Think it might be Pygmy beetle similar type of damage anyway.
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Soil pest complex includes a number of soil pests.... google tells me, including millipedes, and springtails. I have heard all of the above blamed but nobody will say conclusively.
 
Tippcon said:
I just can't understand why, if there has been a proper feasibility study done for a new factory and planning is at as advanced a stage as it appears, that nobody can come out and say "At current European sugar prices we would hypothetically be paying €XX per tonne for beet this year" and give everybody an idea of where they would stand. Surely they know what their projected processing costs would be, and what kind of margin they would want to return. Fair enough you can use the argument that sugar prices are cyclical and this could well just be a bad year, but there will always be good and bad years so I think it's only fair that potential growers would be afforded the opportunity to decide whether the bad years would be worth the risk.
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It's not difficult really, Surely it's just a matter of another axis to your graph which shows the price per tonne in each scenario.

I would have thought with the exception of beet and power costs that most other costs would-be relatively fixed, labour, debt servicing costs etc.

Am I right in saying that there is still a yield difference between sugar beet and fodder beet yields? That needs to be taken into account too.
 
WestCorkBoy said:
Fairly sure it’s not nematodes, there was a product to control them before my time used to be put on at sowing did it start with an a..,,.. can’t think of it. Think it might be Pygmy beetle similar type of damage anyway.
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Yaltox is what it was called I think.It was used a lot in the early eighties for what was then called underground pests,never quite sure what they were.
 
What about all the stubble ground that's now planted with stubble turnips and radish etc? Would these root crops not render most tillage fields unsuitable for beet for three years as a break against clubroot etc?
 
Hardysplicer said:
How big of an issue will the lack of neo nic be on seed?

I take all seed until now wax dressed?
Is that correct?
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Lack of neonic will certainly be an issue on beet seed in my opinion. It gave control of the soil pest complex and leather jackets. It also controlled virus yellows as far as I know.
The soil pest complex seems to worse on shaley loose land from what I hear.
 
MF30 said:
What about all the stubble ground that's now planted with stubble turnips and radish etc? Would these root crops not render most tillage fields unsuitable for beet for three years as a break against clubroot etc?
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Beet is not a brassica so I don’t think it makes any difference
 
Mid cork said:
Yaltox is what it was called I think.It was used a lot in the early eighties for what was then called underground pests,never quite sure what they were.
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Was Yaltox not a form of slug pellet and it went out of fashion when draza came along? Was it gamacol that was the heavy artillery for killing practically everything.
 
Blackwater boy said:
Beet is not a brassica so I don’t think it makes any difference
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When we used to grow the mustard seed for Aeos we were told we should rotate the fields so there would not be Beet going in after the mustard. Was told if any of it grew back that none of the sprays used on the beet would kill it off.
 
Blackwater boy said:
Was Yaltox not a form of slug pellet and it went out of fashion when draza came along? Was it gamacol that was the heavy artillery for killing practically everything.
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Yaltox was a form of very fine granules that was put put in a narrow band on top of the seed and covered with the soil. It was very little use on slugs or leatherjackets because it only controlled them if they came up through the band of granules. Draza was infinitely better.
 
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