ÄDELHOLM 2024: PREPARATION – TILLAGE & FERTILISATION

AUTUMN PLOUGH

The plough was out late 19 December.

Speaking of ploughing, from when the sugar beet field from 2023 was ploughed, we got the feedback that it was an absolute mess after harvest. We knew this would happen given the soil moisture conditions, but it was a cost we decided to pay. The only question now is how long we’ll pay that cost (deep soil compaction), and if Christian’s back will recover. There is an analysis of this here.

SUMMER MEETING

It has also been decided that the 8.4 ha field at Ädelholm will host the 2024 version of the NordicSugar + NBR sommarmöte (summer meeting) in early June. This will make the process a lot more complex…

SPRING PREPARATION

Nothing happens, then it all happens. It has been a wet winter and early spring, so spring preparation is well behind the ideal timeline. But as of 18 April, we’re very close to sowing.

FERTILISATION

As noted above, with the summer meeting to be held at Ädelholm, the plan for the field is complex. There will a lot of sections cordoned off so that trials/ demos can be sown. This also means that fertilisation needs to be more precise. The hope was that the Rapid would be able to go out and place the fertiliser, to a depth of ca 8cm. Unfortunately, given it is wet, it looks like it might continue to be wet, we want to sow, and the Rapid is heavy, the decision to use the boom-spreader was taken. There were some issues with calibration, but in the end most of the field got 680 kg/ha Probeta on 16 April. Around the headlands, it might be closer to 850 kg/ha.

680 kg/ha of Probeta is 15-3.6-8-+. This equates to 102 kg-N/ha, 24.5kg-P/ha and 54.4 kg-K/ha.

The extra PK we had planned to add was never applied…

Harrowing

With the fertiliser application, the heavy harrow (name?) was used on 16 April. A second shallower Germinator harrowing was completed in the afternoon of the 17th.