FODDER BEET (Beta vulgaris, ssp. Esculenta, var. crassa)

The fodder beet has smaller amount of leaves than sugar beet, it has shorter and thinner footstalks. The fodder beet has different shapes and color of beetroots (from yellow to dark red-purple) than sugar beet. The beetroot usually grows up over the soil surface in comparison with the sugar beet.
 

Bulva

Plody - klubíčka

Meaning and content

The fodder beet is mainly used for livestock feeding (mainly for cattle). Main requirement in fodder beet feeding is that the pollution cannot exceed 5 %. It is important to crush the fodder beet before the seeding and mix it with other bulk feed. There is a risk of the callosity of gums at the feeding, and there is a risk of maw acidosis at high rations of feed. It is not good to crush the fodder beet for reserve because of feed devaluation. There the maximum time is 6 hours from mixing to feeding.

Grower requirements

The cultivation technology of fodder beet appears from the similar principles like a cultivation of sugar beet. The cultivation territory of fodder beet is wide, there are the best results of cultivation at the area situated at the foot of mountains with the precipitations 600 mm. There the fodder beet is placed after winter cereals at crop rotation, the fodder beet if good foregoing crop for spring cereals. It is not good to grow the fodder beet after fodder beet earlier than four years. The manures are the principle of fertilization. The fodder beet is used as a green manure ploughed under with smaller amount of dung in autumn. The main principle of harvest is to damage the beetroot least, it is important to storage it in the long term, without bigger wastes. The beetroots are not whittled down.