Beetroot is an extremely healthy vegetable used to feed animals. It bears the greatest value for dairy cattle, being a wonderful way to increase milk yield in cows and goats.
In the winter season, when the diet of animals consists mainly of canned and dry food, beet root crops can fill the need for trace elements and vitamins. In summer, in addition to root crops, it is also eaten as a leaf.
Beetroot is an unusually healthy vegetable, which includes a huge amount of pectin and minerals, vitamins and easily digestible carbohydrates. This is a biennial plant, the fruits of which can reach 15 kg.
Bit of history
Fodder beets, along with table and sugar, came from wild beets grown in North Asia and the Far East. Initially, this culture was not divided into subspecies, and therefore there was only one name - beets. The history of the appearance of the feed variety as an independent agricultural crop goes back to the 16th century, to Germany.
German peasants at that time noticed that if a cow was fed with beets, then her milk yield increased significantly, and milk itself became much tastier. It is this time period that is usually associated with the emergence of such a crop as fodder beets. Soon, experts began to study this phenomenon. And already from the beginning of the 18th century, beet fodder captivated all European countries.
Beet Varieties
Beet roots grow the most diverse color, shape and degree of immersion in the ground. Depending on the specified parameters, fodder beets are divided into the following varieties:
- The conical shape of the vegetable, in which up to 80% of the root length is located underground (beet Uman semi-sugar, Poltava semi-sugar);
- The elongated oval shape of the vegetable, when 50-70% of its length is in the soil (Winner);
- The cylindrical shape of the vegetable, when underground lies from 25 to 40% of the length (Ekkendorsky yellow beets, Poltava white);
- The rounded shape of the vegetable, in which most of the root crop is on the surface.
The stronger and better developed the aboveground part of the root crop, the more easily the vegetable tolerates drought. The most popular varieties of fodder beets: Eckendorf yellow, Centaur Poly, Oberndorf red.
Crop rotation features
In fodder crop rotation, the best predecessors of fodder beets are cereal-bean mixtures, corn for silage, and gourds. In field crop rotation, it is recommended to plant beets in a place where annual bean grasses, row crops and winter crops were previously located.
As practice shows, the best harvests of fodder beets were obtained when last year rye, wheat, peas, corn and vegetables were located on the site of this crop. Do not place beet fodder after various perennial herbs. It is allowed to return this culture to the previous field no earlier than after 3 years.
Seed production
Beets are among those plants whose seeds can be obtained no earlier than the 2nd year of cultivation. In the first year, it forms tops and root crops, and the next year, when planting a vegetable, it is possible to obtain fodder beet seeds suitable for growing plants.
It is very important that the root crops that go to the seeds are resilient and healthy. When the beet stalk begins to dry out, they dig up the vegetable and then hang it in a dry place protected from the wind. Under such conditions, the beets should be kept until the stem of the plant is completely dry. After this, the seeds should be collected and dried in a small paper bag.
Soil preparation
The cultivation of fodder beets is a rather complicated process that requires certain knowledge and skills. So, it is important to know that growing this vegetable on sandy, swampy, and clay soils will not bring positive results. Stony soils are also unsuitable for root crops.
Favorable for obtaining a good harvest of fodder beets are considered lands with a slightly acidic, neutral reaction and slightly saline soils. Ideally, this vegetable is planted in floodplains and rich chernozems.
The plant is very demanding on the fertility of the earth, and therefore can not do without preliminary soil improvement. Only with timely land preparation can one count on the emergence of friendly seedlings. So, fodder beets, the cultivation of which is familiar to many farmers, at the initial stage of planting needs soil preparation.
It is necessary to clean the area overgrown with weeds and release it for pre-sowing treatment. The weeding method will help get rid of the contamination by dicotyledonous annuals (quinoa, chicken millet, shiritsa) and cereal weeds. It is possible to free the site from perennials such as wheat grass or sow thistles by using the continuous treatment with herbicides in autumn (Roundup, Buran, Hurricane).
Fertilizer application
Under the autumn digging, it is necessary to bring compost or ripened organic fertilizer to the site at the rate of 35 tons per 1 ha. An excellent fertilizer is also wood ash, which is applied in the amount of 5 centners per 1 ha.
Before planting, it is necessary to plow the area with the introduction of nitroammofoski. Also, the culture needs phosphorus and potash fertilizers. After all the manipulations done, the soil should be loose, finely lumpy and slightly moist.
Beet planting
The vegetative period of fodder beets varies from 125 to 150 days, and therefore begin to plant the crop in the spring, from the last March days and until mid-April. It is recommended to sow this vegetable when the soil at a depth of 12 cm has already warmed up to 5-7 degrees.
On the eve of planting, the seeds should be treated with a disinfectant. So, for example, you can withstand them for half an hour in a saturated solution of manganese. To achieve the most optimal seedling density will help their additional treatment with growth stimulants. It is important not to forget that the seed after wet procedures needs to be dried a little.
On the prepared site, it is required to make grooves with row spacings of approximately 60 cm. Sowing the culture should be at a depth of 3 cm, and on average per meter should fall 14-15 seeds (approximately 150 g of seeds will be required per hundred square meters of land).
The beds need to be sprinkled with earth and wait for the first shoots. If the earth is dry, then it will not be superfluous to compact it with a smooth roller. This is necessary so that moisture from the deeper layers can be drawn closer to the surface. At a temperature of 8 degrees on average, sprouts will appear after 12 days, but if the temperature is more than 15 degrees - after 4 days.
Care Features
Fodder beets, the cultivation of which is a real art, develops quite slowly in the first month after germination. Of great importance during this period is the thinning procedure, which should be carried out after the growth of several real leaves. So, on the running meter should be no more than 5 shoots, the distance between which is at least 25 cm.
Simultaneously with watering, it is recommended to feed the sprouts with ammonium nitrate, based on the following proportion: 12 g per 1 linear meter. After 2 weeks, another fertilizing with mineral fertilizer should be carried out.
Beetroot is quite hygroscopic, and therefore irrigation has a direct impact on the size of the root crop and, as a result, on the entire yield. But at the same time, a month before the expected start of harvesting, the need for liquid decreases sharply, due to the fact that the vegetable begins to accumulate dry matter.
In addition, fodder root crops often suffer from weeds and because of severe weed often do not get from 30 to 80% of the crop. And therefore, regular weeding of row-spacing is the key to successful cultivation of fodder beets.
Harvesting
In late summer and early autumn, fodder beets cease to form new leaves, while old ones gradually begin to turn yellow, and then die. The growth of root crops also stops, and the excess moisture coming in at that time can only worsen the taste of vegetables.
The fodder beets, which farmers love to take a photo of, thus capturing the results of their labor, are removed from the beds in early October, until the first frosts. Harvest, slightly digging the fruit with a shovel or pitchfork. For the purposes of long-term storage, fodder beets are cleaned of adhering earth and tops and stored in earthen pits or cellars at a temperature of 3 to 5 degrees.
Knowing not only how fodder beets look, but also how to grow a successful harvest of this vegetable, any farmer will be able to make wonderful food supplies for the winter. In addition, in the cold season, this valuable and useful culture will give animals real pleasure.