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Some Aspects of Sugar Beet Production in England, 1945–1985

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2008

Alec Douet
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Extract

Sugar beet occupies only a minor proportion of the total area of agricultural land in Britain, but it is of major importance to mixed cropping farms in the Eastern Counties of England, where soil and climate combine to give ideal growing conditions. This region produces more than half the annual United Kingdom output, and forms part of the major beet producing area in the European Community, which stretches from the Ile de France and Champagne-Ardenne in France, through southern Belgium to the western regions of the Netherlands. This paper is based on an extensive series of studies of beet production and reports on farming in the Eastern Counties of England, prepared since the mid-1920s by the Farm Economics Branch, and later by the Agricultural Economics Unit, of the Department of Land Economy at the University of Cambridge. After sketching the historical background, it discusses some of the more significant developments – in crop husbandry, structural change, in the substitution of labour for capital and specialisation, and accession to the European Community – which took place in the four decades of unprecedented progress up to 1985.

Type
Research Article
Information
Rural History , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , October 1996 , pp. 221 - 238
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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References

1. Bowler, A.R., Agriculture under the Common Agricultural Policy (Manchester 1985), p. 131.Google Scholar

2. Statistical references are taken from M.A.F.F., Annual Agricultural Statistics unless otherwise stated.

3. Rayns, F., ‘The Sugar Beet Crop in Norfolk Farming’, Journal of the Ministry of Agriculture, 44, 1936, 39.Google Scholar

4. Eastern Daily Press, 20 Nov 1920; 17 Jan 1921.

5. British Sugar (Subsidies) Act, 1925 (retrospective to 1924).

6. Hansard, vol. 180, 18 Feb 1925, p. 1121.

7. Eastern Daily Press, 19 Jan 1935.

8. For example, Kitchin, A.W. Menzies, The Future of British Farming (1956), p. 18.Google Scholar

9. British Sugar (Subsidy) Act, 1934. U.K. Sugar Industry Enquiry Commission, Cmd 4871, 1935.

10. Sugar Industry Re-organisation Act, 1936.

11. Agriculture Act, 1947, Section 1 (i).

12. Cambridge University Farm Economics Branch, mimeo 61, Sugar Beet Production in the Eastern Counties (1965), p. 3.

13. Agriculture Act, 1957.

14. Sturgess, I.M., Profitability of the Sugar Beet Crop: Analyses over Time and across Sections, Occasional Papers Series No. 29, Agricultural Economics Unit, Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge, 1983, p. 14.Google Scholar

15. Sturgess, I.M., ‘Changes in the Structure of Sugar Beet Growing, 1965–1975 and 1975–1985’. Unpublished paper, University of Cambridge, Department of Land Economy (1986), p. 4.Google Scholar

16. The relative influences of amalgamation and specialisation is discussed in Sturgess, ‘ Changes in the Structure of Sugar Beet Growing’.

17. Sturgess, , ‘Changes’, p. 16.Google Scholar

18. Murphy, M.C., Report of Farming in the Eastern Counties of England, 1977–78 (University of Cambridge, 1979), p. 16.Google Scholar

19. M.A.F.F., Report on Soil Structure, 1970, p. 137; Norfolk Agricultural Station, Annual Reports, 1968–1970.

20. Douet, A., ‘Norfolk Agriculture, 1914–1972’ (unpublished PhD thesis University of East Anglia, 1989), p. 386 et seq.Google Scholar

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22. ibid.

23. University of Cambridge Farm Economics Branch, mimeo 55, Economics of Producing Sugar Beet, 1957 (Cambridge, 1958), p. 8.Google Scholar

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25. Rose, O.S., ‘The Sugar Beet Industry’, Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, 133 (1972), p. 110.Google Scholar

26. ibid, p. 113.

27. University of Cambridge, Farm Economics Branch, mimeo 55, Economics of Producing Sugar Beet (1957), p. 13; mimeo 63, Sugar Beet Production and Harvesting (1966), p. 28.

28. British Sugar Beet Review, 56; i (1988), p. 19.

29. On the other hand, rape was less suitable as a break crop in not allowing autumn weed control by cultivation, depended heavily on good weather in July and August, and was less complementary with labour requirements.

30. Rose, , Sugar Beet Industry, p. 116.Google Scholar

31. Murphy, M.C., Report on Farming in the Eastern Counties of England, 1985–86 (University of Cambridge, 1986), p. 66Google Scholar; Sturgess, , Profitability, pp. 18, 19.Google Scholar

32. Murphy, , Reports on Farming, 1979–80, p. 45Google Scholar; 1985–86, p. 66; Sturgess, , Profitability, p. 19.Google Scholar

33. Sturgess, , Profitability, p. 195.Google Scholar

34. Douet, , ‘Norfolk Agriculture’, p. 440.Google Scholar

35. East Anglian Farming World, 25 Apr 1963.

36. Sturgess, Profitability, p. 20.

37. ibid.

38. 33.3 tonnes per hectare compared with 35.8 tonnes.

39. The net margin is the difference between total outputs and total costs. Gross margin is the value of output less variable costs - those which normally change proportionately with the size of an enterprise; for crops they include seeds, fertilisers, sprays, among others. Fixed costs are those incurred for the farm as a whole, such as labour, machinery and power, rent, and miscellaneous overheads.

40. Sturgess, , Profitability, p. 34.Google Scholar

41. University of Cambridge, Farm Economics Report no. 46, Report of Farming, 1956–57, p. 15.

42. Murphy, , Report on Farming, 1981–82, p. 59Google Scholar; 1985–86, p. 62; 1987–88, p. 56; Sturgess, , Profitability, p. 27.Google Scholar

43. Sturgess, , Profitability, p. 31.Google Scholar

44. Oilseed rape average yields for the quinquennial 1977/78–1981/82 were 50 per cent higher than those in 1972/73–1976/77.

45. British Sugar Beet Review, 56: i (1988), 19.

46. Murphy, , Report on Farming, 1985–86, p. 67 (17 per cent compared with 3.5 per cent).Google Scholar

47. Murphy, , Report on Farming, 1983–1984, p. 55.Google Scholar

48. Monetary compensatory payments meant that prices differed within the E.C., in some cases more than before its formation.

49. A further complication arose from the access to the U.K. market that cane-sugar producing Commonwealth countries enjoyed under the Commonwealth Sugar Agreement. The Sugar Protocol incorporated into the 1975 Lome Convention, gave certain African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, including several in the Commonwealth, an open-ended commitment to guaranteed levy-entry free access for a given quantity (1.3 million tons of raw sugar) at a stipulated price within the price band paid to Community producers - a guarantee unique among EC trade concessions.

50. British Sugar Beet Review, 48: i (1981), 5.

51. British Sugar Beet Review, 53; iv (1985), 1.