Test harvestings 2023

News and current situation 2023

On July 15, as every year, we carried out a preliminary sampling of beet fields in the Soester Börde. Only the beet weight is determined.

The trial harvesting in the Wetterau region will not take place this year.

07.08.2023 | The first test harvesting results from July 31 from the Straubing, Ochsenfurt and Zeitz regions show that the beets are doing well. They survived the previous drought well. The abundant rainfall of recent weeks is currently being impressively converted into yield by the plants.

21.08.2023 | Above-average beet yields and low sugar content - dilution effect due to high rainfall: In the last four weeks before the trial harvests on August 14, 2023, it rained almost every day in the sampled regions. Out of 28 days, 7 days were rain-free. In the first two weeks of August, twice as much precipitation fell compared to the 10-year average: Rhineland region 81 mm, Söllingen 34 mm, Zeitz 62, Ochsenfurt 71 and in the Straubing region 61 mm.

04/09/2023 | The trial harvests at the end of August result in above-average beet yields due to the abundant water supply in recent weeks. Sugar content, on the other hand, stagnates at a level between 14 % and 15 %. In combination, this results in sugar yields that are slightly below or at the level of the five-year average.

04.10.2023 | Very good increases in beet yield and slight to medium increases in sugar content were achieved in the 14 days between September 11 and 25. As a result, sugar yields at the end of September were regionally above the 5-year average.

16.10.2023 | The trial harvests in the Zeitz, Ochsenfurt and Straubing regions have been completed. On October 23, only the fields in the Rhineland and the Söllingen region will be sampled. The WVZ's second harvest and production estimate has been revised upwards. The estimated beet yield is now 79.2 t/ha. The sugar content was adjusted downwards to 17.2 %.

25.10.2023 | Both in Söllingen and in the Rhineland, beet yields rose again slightly in the last 14 days. The surveys began everywhere with very low sugar contents, which improved in the course of the sampling, but remained below the long-term average almost everywhere. We are currently observing a stagnation in sugar yields due to decreasing daylight hours.