American spacing for Russian sugar beets

Amity Technology, the USA leading manufacturer of machinery and equipment for sugar beet growing, offers Russian farmers optimisation of sugar beet growing, processing and storage technologies. The innovative solutions, technologies and equipment lineup were showcased at the seminar at AgroCentre’s service centre in Lipetsk.

Representatives of Syngenta, one of the leading producers of agrichemicals and seeds, also presented their products at the seminar. The company demonstrated a comprehensive crop protection strategy for growing sugar beets in the Central Black Soil Region and a new line of hybrids.

Over 50 farmers from Voronezh, Lipetsk, Tambov, Belgorod, Oryol, Kursk and Bryanck oblasts attended the event. The guests gave very positive feedback on the seminar.

'It was a very productive event’, shares Mikhail Goryavin, Chief Agronomist of the farming operation named after M. Y. Lernontov (Lipetsk oblast). ‘We have learned a lot about Amity machinery and sugar beet sowing, growing and harvesting practices implemented in the USA.’

This seminar is not the first joint event organised by AgroCentre and Amity Technology. Discussion sessions for Russian farmers have been held since 2000. In accordance with the American technology of growing sugar beets, the spacing between the rows should be 56 cm. Sergey Lomantsov, Executive Director of AgroCentreLiski, considers this solution quite good despite the fact that it is new to Russia.

‘The American practices of sugar beet growing are not commonly used in Russia, but on some farms they have demonstrated quite impressive results’, affirms Sergey. ‘Trio, the largest sugar beet producer in Lipetsk oblast, and Agrosila, the largest farming enterprise in the Volga region, successfully sow sugar beet at a 56-cm inter-row spacing. This is quite an interesting solution. I admit that in the future it may become a serious competitor for the traditional European method of sowing at a 45-cm inter-row spacing.’

Casey Bryl, Export Sales Manager at Amity Technology, told the guests about the advantages of the wide inter-row spacing.

‘In the USA, approximately 85% of all sugar beets is grown at a 56-cm inter-row spacing’, states Casey. ‘The remaining 15% is grown at a 60, 70 or 76-cm spacing. North Dakota State University Sugar Beet Extension Service has conducted a comparative study of the American and the European technologies. For two consecutive years, specialists sowed sugar beet at a 45-cm and 56-cm inter-row spacing in the fields equal in size and soil quality and evaluated the yields. The results of the study showed that the fields sown at a wider inter-row spacing demonstrated a bigger yield and a higher sugar content in the beets. Besides, planters with a 56-cm spacing cover 20% more area than conventional European ones within the same period of time and at the same driving speed, which allows to save time, effort and money.

Casey Bryl observed that the American technology implies a higher seeding rate, however it requires less powerful machines, and the plants receive less damage during harvesting, which improves their storage quality.

Amity Technology offers its own line of sugar beet harvesting equipment: 6, 8 and 12-row Amity 2500 pulled sugar beet harvesters, sugar beet carts, Amity PT22006 planters as well as 6, 8 and 12-row Amity 3550 defoliators. The farm equipment by Amity Technology works without a hitch. It has been marketed in the Central Black Soil Region for over ten years, five of which — by AgroCentreLiski.