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30 March 2006 - 12:04
Sugar beets in good shape let go of the soilDanisco Seed has developed MARIBO beet varieties with a 50 per cent reduction of soil tare Along with non-stick frying pans, now you can also get non-stick sugar beets. During the past ten years, Danisco Seed has been developing the shape of the sugar beet in order to make it more round and smooth. This shape makes it more difficult for the soil to stick to the beet. The new beet varieties have halved the soil tare of the varieties grown ten years ago. At that time, soil typically accounted for 5-8 per cent of each truckload of beets delivered to the sugar factory. In Europe alone, this accumulates into approx. 9 million tons of soil – or approx. 200,000 trucks loaded with soil. "So obviously, a 50 per cent reduction of the soil tare, such as we have achieved, can have a major effect", explains Niels H. Gram, President of Danisco Seed. If the beet can avoid the adhering soil, the beet grower can avoid having to pay the carrier for taking soil to the factory. The environment can avoid unnecessary transportation, and the factory can avoid soil and stones in the processing line, which could damage the machinery. The sugar beets can be handled more carefully when lifted, cleaned and washed, thus reducing the loss of sugar yield and the amount of soil to be deposited by the factory will be reduced. New MARIBO varietiesFarmers in a number of countries already grow MARIBO varieties from Danisco Seed with a significantly lower soil tare, e.g. the varieties Belize, Palace, Kingston, Hekla and Etna, and more are on the way.The market now benefits from the development work initiated by Danisco Seed at the beginning of the 1990s with the object of creating a more round and smooth beet with a minimal root groove. "Normally, sugar beets have a distinct root groove, and it is especially in this groove that the soil gets stuck and is difficult to remove. In our first field trials we used beet families with no root groove. These beets had a low sugar content, but by crossbreeding with traditional sugar beets with a very high sugar content, we succeeded in creating a competitive clean beet", explains Niels H. Gram. Beneficial for everyoneAlong the way, Danisco Seed has designed new methods for measurement of the soil tare and assessment of the root shape. This helps the breeders to select varieties with the best soil tare properties. The root groove and the smoothness and branching of the beet roots is assessed on a scale of 1-9. Nine is for the best sugar beet without any root groove. Only varieties having a score above 7 are selected for further breeding.Research and development has been carried out in close co-operation with one of Europe’s largest sugar producers, Danisco Sugar. It is clearly in the interest of the sugar producers to have less soil brought with the beets into the factories. For these purposes, Danisco Sugar has previously been in contact with producers of farm equipment in order to improve the machines used for cleaning and loading of the beets. Danisco Sugar and the Danish beet growers have agreed on a payment system that makes it financially attractive to the growers to hand in the beets as clean as possible. Valuable parameterToday the sugar beet shape and the cleanness percentage are important parameters when Danisco Seed breeds and selects beet varieties. Low soil tare is a parameter with high priority at the same level as yield, sugar percentage, juice purity and disease resistance.
Niels H. Gram, President – Beet Seed, Danisco Seed, phone +45 5460 6031
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