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“Sugarbeet Report” presented by NDSU Extension, features growing tips from NDSU sugar beet specialists and researchers.
This is the Sugarbeet Report, bringing you the latest information from NDSU throughout the sugar beet growing season. Sugarbeet farmers have plenty to think about this time of year, but looking ahead and thinking about good soil practices can pay off in the long run. Anna Cates, University of Minnesota Soil Health Specialist has some fall tips. Anna, harvest is right around the corner. What can farmers do to leave their fields in the best possible condition?
Anna Cates:As we get into the beet harvest season, it's a good time to think about what do you wanna leave on the field over the winter. So, obviously, getting the crop out of the ground is time sensitive. It's a lot of work. A lot of things have to go right. But when you leave that field for the winter, that's the soil that's going to be exposed to rain and wind over the next several months. So things like planting a cover crop in your pre pile acres can slow down the movement of soil if we get some of those big wind storms like we have the last couple of springs. That can really help slow things down. Things like leaving the field a little rougher rather than perfectly smooth, again, can stop the movement of soil from wind and water over the winter season. You know, sometimes beets get a bad reputation for having a lot of soil movement off of them, but there's a lot we can do to slow things down. Just a little bit of roughness, residue, cover crops, strategic locations, they can help a lot.
Bruce Sundeen:I suppose you're trying to maintain the aggregates.
Anna Cates:Yes. When we have the beets in rotation, we necessarily have to disturb the soil a lot. But if we're building soil structure through the rest of the rotation, there's some cover crops where they fit, through some reduced tillage, then we have good soil structure. Those soil aggregates that are kind of well held together, glued together with organic matter, those are gonna stick around and not be blown or washed away as easily as fine soil particles that tillage leaves behind.
Bruce Sundeen:What kind of low cost options are out there?
Anna Cates:If you're looking at prepile acres, you have a ton of options because those come off so early. So you have options to do things like oats that are really cheap. Any other small grain seed will do great. It should come up in the fall and really give you some good growth to slow down the movement of particles. There's a lot of financial assistance for cover crops. You can sign up for your local soil and water conservation district, equip funding, sometimes a watershed district, sometimes a contract with a particular industry for something like a carbon market or a premium price for a low carbon intensity crop. There's a lot of ways that growers can get a little assistance.
Bruce Sundeen:Anna, what are some planning choices for next year's sugar beets?
Anna Cates:If you're looking at beets next season, a lot of times people are planning on a nurse crop early in the spring. But actually, a cover crop planted in the fall can give you a little more benefit in terms of again reducing erosion before the spring sugar beets, leaving your soil well structured. We've seen some real success with growers that are able to use strip mill to plant their beets in the spring. We really see that those beets are totally comparable in yield and sugar quality, and there's just a lot less disturbance in the system. So we see better infiltration in strip till systems. We're able to retain water. Across the state, we're facing a lot of drought. So a system with reduced tillage that lets your soil stay aggregated and keep some water around for later in the season is starting to look really good, you know. Reduced till systems tend to really perform well in drier climates. And through the Western Part of Minnesota, that goes back and forth whether we're dry enough, then a no till system always outperforms. But the strip till system, kind of the best of both worlds, works really nicely for beets that like that nice black seed bed in the spring. So if you can maybe try few acres of strip till for next year, that can work really well.
Bruce Sundeen:Thanks, Anna. Our guest has been Anna Cates, University of Minnesota soil health specialist. This has been the Sugarbeet Report, bringing you the latest information from NDSU throughout the sugar beet growing season.