We grow sugar beet for British Sugar’s Newark factory that will produce granulated sugar. We grow our crop with completely in house operation from establishment using a 18 row drill, harvesting using a 6 row self propelled tanker harvester and then hauling our crop to the factory. The Sugar beet crop produces 1,600,000 1kg bags of Silver Spoon sugar per year. Enough for 380 million cups of tea, 5 for everyone in the UK
Sugar beet is a plant that is often grown alongside barley, wheat or pulses. It is made up of fibre and sugar, and contains a sizable amount of embedded water. The crop relies heavily on rainwater for its growth; 95% of the crop in fact. Sugar beets can range in weight, from 0.5kg to 2kg. They are primarily used for sucrose production, which is a high energy pure food, as sugar beets contain between 13% to 22% sucrose. Some other interesting facts about sugar beets include:
Around 7.5 million tonnes of sugar beet is grown per year in the UK, and it is delivered an average distance of 28 miles to get to British sugar’s factories. Growing sugar beets for producing sucrose grew in popularity in the US around 1870. A total of 26 states grew sugar beets once an industry was established, and in 1990 about 1.4 million acres were produced in a total of 14 states. Some of the leading states in terms of sugar beets were Michigan, Texas, Colorado and California. Worldwide, Russia leads the production of sugar beets, with almost 8.5 million acres. France, Turkey and Poland all follow with around one million each.
Sugar beets have been grown as a summer crop in cooler places of the world for a long time. Recently, it has been grown as a winter crop, especially in the warmer regions which includes parts of Africa, Southern Europe and South America. The plant can be the victim of a nasty disease called cercospora, which makes the leaves turn a horrible greenish yellow colours and reduces the sugar content and root weight. It is common to find that commercial sugar beets have been modified genetically to increase resistance to the herbicide glyphosate.