sugar beet

[hedgerow pete]

i have just been speaking to a friend on the skype system and he was explaining the sugar beet industry to me , to such a point that my brain exploded and my lower intestines tried to throtal me, lol

can anyone here explain it for me.

from what i under stood, a farmer applys for an allowence of seeds from the sugar company for his land, the sugar company then sends him the seeds and agress a rate of return in tons of beet.

the seeds apparently in the uk are if i think i remember it are either copyrighted or in some way protected by the sugar beet company, he explained it as a closed loop thingy which sounded very Monsanto to me.under the counter GM sort of stuff

any way thats the reason why we are not allowed /or restricted to sell/ or cant get hold of to sell , sugar beet seeds in the uk.

 

[oliver90owner]

Yes, a sort of 'closed shop' system whereby if you were to grow sugar beet you would not have an outlet for it, as it needs to go to a processing plant and there are not many of them! There used to be more sugar beet factories, but they have been closed systematically, leaving the strategically placed ones only. Acreage is allocated and older contracts were made difficult for the smaller producers, as transport costs went up. In the past some contracts were bought out and others just given up, I believe.

So, yes, a bit of a 'controlled' crop. They don't want a glut and only operate the plant for the 'season'.

I'm not sure of the availability of sugar beet seed, but I don't think saving seed is a good route as the seed produced would be very variable and easily revert to wild, non-productive strains of beet. A bit like second or third generation queens - where the temperament can be a tad awful!

 

[BeeJayBee]

The same used to happen with growing potatoes, you were only allowed to grow an agreed acreage.

 

[betterbee]

welcome back pete

 

[hedgerow pete]

dont worry betterbee. i have never left. i read the threads two or three times a week. its just for other reasons i do not post as much as i used to and the videos wil be starting again when i get the time to do so.

you cant get rid of me that easily,

its a lot of the time i am reading stuff on a different computer system and or not signed in