In 1970, a pickup truck offering sugarbeet seed for sale hit the dusty roads in rural Minnesota in hopes of selling seed to sugarbeet growers. The germplasm within the seed was obtained from a combination of sources: the USDA, proprietary genetics from overseas, and refined genetics that offered a new tool to sugarbeet growers across North America. This new tool was the basis for Betaseed, a company completely dedicated to independent breeding, development and distribution of ever-improving sugarbeet seed.
Since its inception, Betaseed has been providing productivity and revenue to North American sugarbeet growers. In 2020, Betaseed sugarbeet seed continues to be chosen on more farms than any other seed brand.
Betaseed is the sugarbeet seed industry’s leading sugarbeet brand in North America, devoted entirely to developing high-performing, multiple-disease-tolerant sugarbeet seed varieties. Plant breeders are bringing growers genetics with more value than ever before, accelerating productivity each time a new hybrid is introduced.
Breeding sugarbeets is a long-term commitment and takes a dedicated effort—often up to 10 years to develop a new hybrid. Betaseed will soon have access to a multiple-herbicide-tolerant sugarbeet trait being developed by KWS and Bayer, which could be introduced by the middle of the decade. Betaseed is also excited to introduce next-generation Cercospora-tolerant varieties to select markets for the 2021 crop year; more information on this KWS trait will be coming soon. Betaseed’s industry-leading performance has resulted in strong disease tolerance, improved yields and higher revenues for North American sugarbeet farmers.
Seed performance doesn’t just happen. It’s the product of years of breeding, testing, monitoring and seed enhancements that have sugarbeets performing consistently in grower’s fields year after year. Producing high-quality sugarbeet seed is the primary goal of seed production operations at Betaseed. The management of the quality process is completely controlled by customer-committed staff who work tirelessly to ensure that each seed lot meets or exceeds rigorous standards. Rigorous qualitative and quantitative tests are conducted to confirm that each seed lot meets the standards required by Betaseed when marketing and distributing Betaseed varieties.
Betaseed is second to none in offering productive genetics that contribute to farm revenue and income. Each seed variety is bred to overcome diseases, pests and environmental obstacles that can negatively impact performance and, ultimately, revenue. Each sales representative spends hours walking fields to make sure grower expectations are being met. The Betaseed brand difference is evident in each step of it value chain, reaching every sugarbeet grower across all 11 markets in North America. This is why at Betaseed, they say they’re “Breeding Confidence.”