Fodder carrot

Economic importance

Root crops of carrot are used for food and fodder purposes and serve as raw material in the production of vitamin-fortified juices.

Due to its high carotene content, it is a valuable product for humans and all animals. Carrot helps improve the carbohydrate-protein balance in diets. 100 kg of root crops correspond to 12 feed units and contain 0.8 kg of digestible protein, 31 g of calcium, 40 g of phosphorus, and from 8.0 to 14.7 g of carotene. One feed unit contains 67 g of digestible protein.

For fodder purposes, carrot leaves are used fresh, dried, and ensiled. 100 kg of carrot tops correspond to 13 feed units and contain 1.4 kg of digestible protein, 460 g of calcium, 65 g of phosphorus, and from 3.2 to 6.9 g of carotene.

Yield

Carrot yield reaches 30–50 t/ha.

As an undersown crop, carrot showed a yield of 17.8 t/ha after harvesting rye for grain, and after harvesting rye for green fodder — 59.5 t/ha (Belarusian RI of Agriculture).

History of the crop

Cultivated carrot originates from a wild form that occurs in various regions, mainly on calcareous soils of Western and Southwestern Asia. Since the 1st millennium, it has served humans as a source of easily digestible carbohydrates, mineral salts, and carotene.

Cultivation areas

Currently, fodder carrot is grown in almost all countries of the world.

In Russia, it is cultivated everywhere.

Botanical description

Fodder carrot (Daucus carota L.) is a biennial plant of the celery family (Apiaceae). In the first year of life, it forms an elongated cone-shaped root crop and a rosette of leaves.

Lateral roots are arranged in four rows. Root crop types: conical, shortened-oval, spindle-shaped, and elongated-conical with a blunt or pointed end. The color varies from white to red-orange.

The seeds carry narrow linear cotyledons to the soil surface.

True basal leaves are 3–5 times pinnately dissected, have a large number of narrow lobes, and a long petiole.

Stem leaves in the second year of life are pinnately dissected. In the second year of life, several branched stems up to 1–1.5 meters high, covered with hairs, appear from the root crop.

The inflorescence is a compound umbel with a large number of small white flowers of the pentamerous type. The flowers are bisexual, small, pinkish or white. Pollination is cross-pollination and occurs with the help of insects.

The fruit is a dry schizocarp; when ripe, it splits into two parts. The seed surface has thin spines (hooks) that prevent free flow during sowing. The seeds have ribs with ducts filled with essential oil.

Before sowing, the seeds are freed from spines by rubbing. The weight of 1000 seeds without spines is from 1.1 to 1.3 g; with spines — up to 2.5 g.

Biological characteristics

Growing season

In the first year of life, the growing season lasts 110–120 days; in the second, 110–130 days.

Technical ripeness in the first year occurs 80–90 days after emergence.

For carrot to transition to flowering, a long period of exposure to low temperatures from 100 to 140 days is required. For this reason, even with very early sowing and winter sowing, bolting in carrot is practically not observed.

Crop rotation

It is cultivated mainly in fodder near-farm crop rotations.

In field crop rotations, the best predecessors for fodder carrot are fertilized winter crops, grain legumes, and potatoes. In fodder and vegetable crop rotations, carrot is placed after row crops, cereals, grain legumes, silage or vegetable crops, and annual grasses.

Fodder carrot can be grown as an undersown crop in stands of early-harvested cereals in regions with a long frost-free period and sufficient moisture supply.

Fertilization

Nutrient consumption is extended. In the initial phases of development, nitrogen is primarily important in carrot nutrition. Potassium, phosphorus, and calcium are consumed throughout the growing season.

In nutrient removal, carrot is similar to sugar beet: one ton of root crops and the corresponding amount of leaves remove from the soil 3.5 kg/ha N; 1.5 kg/ha P₂O₅; 7 kg/ha K₂O and 1.6 kg/ha CaO.

Recommended rates of mineral fertilizer application:

• on sod-podzolic soils — N_45-60P_30-45K_60-90 and 40 t/ha of rotted manure;
• on chernozems — N_30-45P_30-45K_30-45 and 20 t/ha of rotted manure.

Manure is applied under fall tillage or replowing if sowing is carried out after an unfertilized predecessor. Organic fertilizers (manure and composts) are effective primarily on soils of light granulometric composition and poorly cultivated sod-podzolic soils.

On drained peatlands, phosphorus-potassium fertilizers and micronutrients containing manganese, boron, and copper are applied first of all.

Soil cultivation

Like all root crops, fodder carrot responds well to deep early fall plowing, which is carried out after stubble discing.

Pre-sowing soil cultivation consists of early spring harrowing, cultivation, and leveling of the soil surface.

On peatlands with a regulated water regime, autumn sowing on frozen-thawed soil is possible.

Sometimes the soil is rolled before sowing.

Sowing

Crop care

Care of fodder carrot crops consists of:

• post-sowing rolling with ribbed rollers in arid growing regions, as well as on light soils, primarily peat soils;
• harrowing 4–5 days after sowing to control weeds;
• breaking up the soil crust using rotary hoes, mesh or light tine harrows;
• loosening of row spacings;
• control of weeds by mechanical (agrotechnical) or chemical methods;
• thinning;
• top dressing;
• irrigation.

With a single pre-emergence harrowing, sharrowing is carried out — the first along-row loosening to a depth of 3–5 cm with flat-cutting blades.

At the beginning of its development, carrot grows slowly, so its crops are sensitive to weeds. Among herbicides, the following are used:

• pre-emergence treatment with propazine at 1–2 kg/ha a.i.;
• pre-emergence or post-emergence treatment with prometryn (against annual grasses and dicotyledons) at 1–1.5 kg/ha a.i.;
• pre-emergence treatment or with linuron — 1–2 kg/ha a.i.;
• preparations: against annual grasses and dicotyledons — Stomp (pre-emergence soil spraying), Gesagard (pre-sowing, pre-emergence spraying and treatment at the 1–2 true leaf stage), Treflan (pre-sowing soil spraying), Racer (pre-emergence soil spraying).

Thinning of fodder carrot seedlings is carried out at the 4–5 leaf stage to a distance of 4–5 cm. To facilitate this operation, bunching is carried out with a row-crop cultivator according to the scheme: the cut is made 27–30 cm, the bunch — 30 cm; after sorting, 6–8 plants are left in the bunch, or an along-row thinner is used.

By harvesting, the plant stand density should be 300–400 thousand/ha. This density is achieved without manual labor if low seeding rates are used and harrowing of seedlings was carried out.

Top dressing of crops is advisable when the main fertilizer was insufficiently applied. It is usually carried out after thinning with cultivator-fertilizer applicators. During top dressing, 20–30 kg/ha of fertilizers, primarily nitrogen, are applied.

Carrot responds well to irrigation. It is optimal to irrigate depending on soil moisture after thinning, when root thickening occurs, as well as one month before harvesting.

Harvesting

Harvesting begins before the onset of autumn frosts.

For carrot harvesting, the mechanization department of the North-Western RI of Agriculture recommends using top-removing machines KIR-1.5B and UBD-ZA. Then the root crops are undercut with SNU-3S machines, an OKPSh-1.4 bracket, or potato diggers. Harvesting of the dug root crops is done manually. For undercutting and loading into vehicles, converted potato harvesters can be used.

Currently, there is a set of machines that allows reducing labor costs for carrot harvesting by 3.5–4 times, for example, digging root crops with MMT-1 or EM-11, sorting on PSK-6. In beet-growing areas, carrot harvesting, if sown with row spacing of 45 cm, can be carried out with a set of beet harvesting machines (BM-6, RKS-6).

Storage

Fodder carrot is stored in trenches, clamps, or storage facilities. When storing, it is recommended to layer the root crops with moist sand or soil. This technique reduces losses in storage by 2 times, in trenches by 5 times (I. V. Yakushkin).

Storage temperature under controlled conditions is 1–2 °C; relative air humidity — 90–95%.

Growing fodder carrot for seed

For planting fodder carrot seed plants, converted transplanting machines are used, or planting is done manually into slits cut by a cultivator. On large areas, a VPG-4B planting machine with additional cones is used.

Planting schemes: 60×30, 60×60, or 70×30 cm.

Care of seed plants consists of removing late-appearing umbels; 12–16 strong inflorescences are left on the plant. Harvesting of seed plants is carried out in two phases: first, the stems are mowed with headers of the ZhNU-3.2, ZhUS-3.5 type. After 12–14 days, they are picked up by combines. A sign of umbel ripeness is their browning and bending inward of the inflorescence.

Varieties

For fodder purposes, table carrot varieties are cultivated: Chantenay 2461, Chantenay Skvirskaya, Biryuchekutskaya 415, Nesravnennaya, Losinoostrovskaya 13 (1964), and Vitaminnaya 6 (1969). The flesh color of the root crops of these varieties is red. Also grown are the varieties Mirzoi Krasnaya 228, Nantes Goriyskaya, RIOKh 336 (1978), Artek (1983), Rogneda (1987), Volzhskaya 30 (1991), Napoli (1993), Zabava (1994), Konservnaya (1997), Samson (Holland, 2001), Marlinka (2002). Hybrids Kolorit (Moldova, 1997), Canada (Holland, 2001).

In fodder terms, varieties and hybrids with red-orange root crops are of greater value, since they contain more carotene.

List of sources

1. Vavilov P. P., Gritsenko V. V., Kuznetsov V. S., et al. (1986). Crop Production. Edited by Vavilov P. P. 5th ed., revised and enlarged. Moscow: Agropromizdat.
2. Kolomeichenko V. V. (2007). Crop Production/Textbook. Moscow: Agrobusinesscenter.
3. Niklyaev V. S. (2000). Fundamentals of Agricultural Production Technology. Agriculture and Crop Production. Moscow: Bylina.