A study tour to Spain begins today, attended by the winners of British Sugar’s Beet the best competition.

The group will look at autumn sown sugar beet production in the southern region and spring sown crops to the north.

Farmers Weekly arable reporter Adam Clarke is attending the trip, and you can follow his video diary on www.fwi.co.uk and on Twitter with the hash tag #spanishbeet.

The tour will take in the Guadalete factory near Jerez and a visit to some sugar beet fields near Cadiz. Also in the southern region there will be a chance to see irrigation techniques and AIMCRA (Research Association for the Optimisation of Sugar Beet Farming) trial crops.

Heading north to Valladolid and the touring party will visit AIMCRA laboratory facilities and witness the latest sugar beet research in Spain.

The tour will be rounded off with a look at Leon Operative centre in Cabreros del Rio followed by a visit to plots comparing the latest irrigation techniques with traditional methods.