BBRO BeetCast

BBRO BeetCast puts the sugar beet research organisation's own people in front of a microphone and asks what matters on the farm right now. Francesca Broome, who introduces herself as BBRO's knowledge exchange manager, hosts. Editions are named by month, and each one follows the crop. In March the talk turned to the virus yellows forecast and aphid monitoring, including a spray threshold of one aphid per four plants that a guest said has been in use for 66 years and still does its job. The same conversation stressed that spray decisions come down to the individual farm and field, and pointed to a reissued aphid ID guide for telling pests apart from harmless or beneficial visitors such as globular springtails. By April, drilling was off to a strong start and weeds were on the agenda. Libby discussed the actives available to growers this year and a weed control trial site on a Lincolnshire demo farm, before Sam Williamson of NFU Sugar took on the SPS agreement, dynamic alignment and concerns over future access to crop protection products. February marked the 50th edition, which the host used to announce a new three-part shape: a main feature, a timely crop management reminder and a short in-action segment. That edition's feature was the new-style recommended list for 2027, taken variety by variety with each entry's years on the list. It is dense. That density is the point. Below-ground problems get similar attention. In a January discussion on farm hygiene, the BBRO team covered killing off regrowth and returning material to its parent field, and one guest estimated that BCN now affects 30 to 50 percent of the growing area, against an older assumption of about 10 percent. The cover crop conversation produced one of the sharper moments: Alistair, drawing on his own PhD research with brassica trap crops, advised resistant types where BCN is present but called marketed reductions of up to 90 percent biologically unrealistic. That edition also made time for Tricia Cullimore, whose 52 years in sugar beet trials included collecting and processing data behind the scenes. Not every edition stays in the field. December looked at training and self-development in agriculture, with a guest describing undergraduate modules called Farming Matters and outreach to careers advisers, the armed forces and parents. March introduced Michelle Gray, one of BBRO's newest staff members, whose job the host called important but unenviable, alongside Georgina Barrett on crop nutrition. Around the conversations sit practical pointers: demo farm days in Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, technical conferences at the Norfolk and Newark showgrounds, and fact files and guides on the BBRO website. The result is a research body's advice delivered in step with the season, with the dates and resources to act on it.