If there is one thing that I hope to know more about than anyone else in the world at the end of my PhD, it is how air moves through sugar beet clamps, and how this air movement impacts the quality of the beets over time. To this end, one of the major research trials…
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In May this year (2019), the IIRB Beet Quality and Storage study group had their latest meeting. The first speaker was from KWS in Germany – Elka Hilscher – and talked about the distribution of the good and the bad within sugar beets. I’ve written a summary of this work for Betordlaren (coming soon). If…
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As far as I know, I’m the only Australian working with sugar beets in Europe. I’d be surprised if this actually was that case, but, for now, it’s a good story. What I do know is that I’m not the only Australian working with sugar beets globally. For one, there is at least one Australian…
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The storage period is short. Is building a scale model of a beet clamp a solution to extending this, for research purposes? In my mind, absolutely (obviously). I can’t imaging how much more we’d be able to learn about the thermo- and fluid dynamics of a clamp during one year if we could run 5…
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(Not the actual title…) This is an English version of my 3rd contribution to Betorlaren (2018 #4), the Swedish sugar beet industry’s magazine. This was an early draft: the final Swedish version looks and reads better, thanks to the four helpful editors that fixed it up before it even went to the publishers. In…
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In Brief (originally written for the NBR Facebook page): Stage 2 of NBRs main storage trail for 2018 was texture and quality at harvest analysis. Conducted at the labs of our German COBRI collaboration partner, Ifz, texture analysis involved subjecting beets to surface penetration tests and compression tests. Penetration tests involve a 2mm needle being…
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Originally written for the NBR Facebook page: There have been few benefits from the lack of rain in 2018 and NBRs research has not been immune to the challenges the year has thrown up. But one of our research trials may actually benefit from the dry. The trial is part of the harvest and storage series,…
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… Nope. But it was an awesome day. We rode out in two groups of 20, with the boys from Musette organising and controlling everything. Cadel was in the first group on the way out to Häckeberga Slott. Given it took us just under an hour to do those 30km, and there was a few…
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Rhizo- relating to a root or roots. This is the diary of the first seeds in my first home made rhizobox. July 14 2018. Sugar beets, sown at approx kl15. 10 seeds sown at approximately 2cm depth, near or against the Plexiglass. I’ve set up the box to lean forward at 15-20 degrees. Given anyone…
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Literally. The harvest campaign of 2017 is remembered as a wet one. While it was underway, I’m sure many were wishing for a better foundation for their clamps sites. This year, for now, we have that. So, while the ground in hard and dry, could it be worth trying to maintain a patch of the…
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