Double
success for beet grower.
Picture:Jason Bye
For
the second time in five years, Robert Cook has clinched the club’s Cantley Cup
for highest overall beet yield.
He
achieved an overall average of 18.46pc sugar content – as his adjusted tonnage
again topped 120 tonnes per hectare for the second time in four years.
Robert,
who grew 25.57ha of beet on two sites at Boundary Farm, Ingham, was presented
with British Sugar’s yield trophy by his contract manager and fellow Stalham
member Sarah Bebb. He averaged 120.6 t/ha or 3,084 adjusted tonnes.
As
Cantley’s top grower, he said that a combination of late-lifting, including
some of the last loads to be delivered to the factory, and the milder coastal
climate, boosted his performance.
A
fan of cover crops, he also planted oil radish and brown and white mustard
after winter barley. Ploughed in November, it seemed to benefit his soil
structure and the following beet crop.
Mr
Cook also thanked his agronomist, incidentally former club chairman, Alastair
Ross, of Frontier Agriculture, for his help over the last 15 years.
EJ
Cook & Co, which won the Cantley Cup in 2012, was started by his father,
Eric in 1952.
He
will be presented with the Cantley trophy at the club’s opening winter season
meeting on Wednesday, November 14 at Vera’s Coffee Shop (A G Meale & Son),
Wayford Nurseries, Stalham.