Oakes Irrigation Research Site
Carrington Research Extension CenterNorth Dakota State University
P.O. Box 531, Oakes, ND 58474-0531, Voice: (701) 742-2744, FAX: (701) 742-2700, E-mail: Walter.Albus@ndsu.edu

 

SUGAR BEET VARIETY PERFORMANCE TRIAL

W. Albus, L. Besemann and H. Eslinger

 

           Although sugarbeets are primarily a dryland crop in the Red River Valley about 6,500 acres were irrigated in eastern ND and about 20,000 acres in western Minnesota in 2006.  About another 15,000 acres were grown under irrigation in northwestern ND.  Top producing varieties under dryland production may or may not be the best varieties under irrigation.  As quality is very important in the processing of sugarbeets it becomes important to test these parameters in an irrigated environment.  The objective of this trial was to evaluate irrigated sugar beets for yield and quality characteristics.  We would like to thank American Crystal Sugar Company for their support.  A special thanks goes to Dr. Allan Cattanach, agronomist with American Crystal for his advice in growing the crop.  We would also like to thank the NDSU personnel Lenny Luecke, Aaron Carlson and Norman Cattanach for their help during harvest. 

 

Results summary

Table 22.  Results of the Oakes Irrigation Research Site 2006 sugar beet variety trial.

 

 

MATERIALS AND METHODS

 

 

Soil:

Hecla sandy loam and Maddock sandy loam; pH=6.7; 2.4% organic matter; soil-P and soil-K was very high; soil-S was high.

Previous crop:

2005 - field corn; 2004 - cabbage, carrot, edible bean, field pea, mustard, millet, soybean, sweet corn and wheat.; 2003 - potato.

Seedbed Preparation:

Fall disk.  Disk on April 24.  Multiweed (field cultivate) twice on April 24 to smooth the seedbed and incorporate fertilizer.

Planting:

Planted on April 25 in 20-inch rows at 89,000 seeds per acre and were later thinned to 41,500 plants per acre.

Plots:

Plots were 17 ft long by 7 ft (4 rows) wide.  There were four reps.

Fertilizer:

On April 10, broadcast 20 lbs N/acre, 45 lbs P2O5/acre, 51 lbs K2O/acre and 13 lbs S/acre as 21-0-0-24, 11-52-0 and 0-0-60.  Applied 50 lbs N/acre on April 18 and stream-bar 30 lbs N/acre on June 7 as 28-0-0.  Stream-bar 30 lbs N/acre to reps 1 and 3 and 80 lbs N/acre to reps 2 and 4 as 28-0-0 on June 21.  Stream-bar N resulted in significant leaf burn on the June 21 application.

Irrigation:

Overhead sprinkler irrigation as needed.

Pest control:

Weeds were controlled with Nortron (5 pt/acre on April 28), Select 2E + MSO + AMS (8 oz/acre + 1 pt/acre + 3 lbs/acre on June 23) and by hand weeding.  Headline (9 oz/acre on August 28) and Eminent (12 oz/acre and 13 oz/acre on September 2 and September 8) was used for disease control.

Harvest:

Harvested on October 18.  Harvest area was 17 feet of the center two rows.  The beets were mechanically topped and lifted and then hand picked, counted and weighed.  A sample from each plot was taken for analysis.

 

 

RESULTS

 

           Although the sugar beet varieties were grown at 150 and 200 lb/acre of soil plus fertilizer N, replication was not great enough for that comparison, so these comments refer to only the 150 lb N/ac rate.  Stand establishment was a little erratic as shown by final stands ranging from 31,209 to 41,971 plants/acre.  Yields ranged from 32.6 to 37.0 ton/acre, which was not significantly different.  Magnum’s yield may have been lowered by a late season Cercospora infection.  Magnum had the highest sugar percentage and highest recoverable sugar/ton (RST).  The highest recoverable sugar/acre (RSA) was recorded with VDH 46519 due to its higher overall yield.  Despite having the lowest stand, VDH 66566 was second in yield, sugar percentage, RST and RSA.  Sugar percentage was very good and sugar lost to molasses was low at 1.3 percent, for the high yields.  This resulted in excellent recoverable sugar per ton.  Spring soil tests showed 20 lb N/acre nitrate-N at the 0-24’ depth compared to 18 lb N/acre in the fall test.  Evidently, a total of 150 lb/acre of fertilizer plus soil N in this sandy loam soil with an organic matter content of 2.4 percent produced high yields without loss of crop quality.

 

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Table 22.  Results of the Oakes Irrigation Research Site 2006 sugar beet variety trial.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Variety

Yield

Sugar

Sugar loss

Recoverable Sugar

Sodium

Potassium

Amino

Stand

 

ton/acre

------%-----

lb/ton

lb/A

-----------ppm-------------

plants/A

VDH 46519

37.0

17.3

1.2

321

12141

   70

1907

417

41971

VDH 66566

35.3

17.9

1.2

335

11691

   79

1943

366

31209

Seedex Alpine

34.4

17.5

1.2

326

11500

   63

1878

395

38896

Seedex Magnum

33.3

18.1

1.2

338

11194

   73

1859

369

39665

Crystal R 434

34.7

17.4

1.4

321

10959

   107

1951

520

42279

HH 317

32.6

17.8

1.3

329

10644

   91

2024

429

37820

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Experimental mean

34.5

17.7

1.2

328

11355

80

1927

416

38589

LSD (0.05)

NS

0.3

0.1

6

NS

18

NS

42

5688

C.V. (%)

7.8

1.2

5.8

2

8

19

5

9

12

 

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