On the Farm: Giving up on sugar beet
By Andrew Ward MBE.
Whilst farming is an enjoyable vocation, it’s also a profession in which so many of the decisions we have to make are rooted in financial returns (or in recent times, lack of same), literally in the case of sugar beet.
This knobbly, oversized root resembles a large parsnip and it’s used to produce about 60% of the sugar that we consume in this country. It’s sold under the Silver Spoon label, unlike sugar produced by Tate & Lyle, which is refined from imported sugar cane.
It’s with a heavy heart that I’ve made the decision that this will be our last year of growing sugar beet. It’s a shame. My father grew it, and I remember riding in his single-row harvester as a youngster. Today we use six-row and nine-row machines, and the whole job, along with its costs, has changed.
To get to the root cause, you only need to dig one up. On our heavy land the ground is still dry and cracked as of late September, and the crop is yellowing, partly from an aphid-borne virus that seed treatments used to control before they were banned. A healthy beet weighs a kilogram or two, but some of
ours are barely bigger than a parsnip. We had virtually no rain from 11th June to 15th August, and only around 140mm since drilling at the end of March, less than half the norm.
Recent showers have prompted fresh leaf growth, but that uses up sugar, and we’re paid on sugar content. On our heavy soils, we’d normally hope for 85 to 90 tonnes per hectare; this year I think 55 to 65 is realistic.
Now for the sums. Seed, fertiliser, chemicals and machinery come to about £1,600 per hectare, plus £550 of overheads, making £2,166 (roughly £876 an acre). With this year’s contract averaging £28.20 a tonne, I need 76.8 tonnes per hectare just to break even. Growing beet has become bittersweet.
Then there’s next year’s crop. NFU Sugar and British Sugar can’t agree a 2027 price, so
the matter has gone to arbitration, with a decision expected towards the end of October. That’s far too late as I need to plan my planting. Talk is of being paid in the early to mid £20s, yet two years ago we received £40 a tonne.
Other factors weigh on my mind too. Beet lorries damage our farm roads, costing thousands to repair, and late lifting impacted the following crops: one field of wheat yielded three-quarters of a tonne an acre less than the rest, while another couldn’t be drilled until spring. Finally, our new contracting partners, James and Michael at Porters Somerton Farms, also have no beet experience, which makes things difficult when I’m away from the farm.
I do want to stress that I’ve always had a very good working relationship with British Sugar, and have visited its factories. Once Cantley in Norfolk closes in February 2027, just three will remain: Newark, near us, Wissington and Bury St Edmunds. Homegrown sugar beet travels an average of just 28 miles from field to factory, which makes it arguably better in terms of food miles than consuming sugar made from imported cane, so I’d like that to continue. It’s also a good break crop in between cereals. But the decision must be made with the head, not the heart.
So instead, our heavy land will go into continuous wheat, with maize grown for a local anaerobic digester as a break crop on the lighter heath land. I won’t rule beet out in the long term, but for now, I can’t see it.
Watch Wardy’s Waffle: Our farming correspondent Andrew Ward MBE is an arable farmer in Leadenham growing wheat, barley, sugar beet, beans and oats. Andrew has his own YouTube channel, Wardy’s Waffle, which is enjoyed by over 23,800 subscribers. Watch his updates Wednesday evenings from 7pm and Sunday mornings at 8am. Search YouTube for @WardysWaffleAndrewWard.
