The whole life cycle of feed beet can be divided into two periods: vegetative growth and reproductive growth. The first year of life is dominated by vegetative growth, and the second year by reproductive growth. The vegetative growth period of forage beet in northern China is 125 ~ 150 days. It is divided into seedling stage, lush stage and mature growth stage of root tuber. Feed beet seeds can germinate in the soil of 65438 0 ~ 2℃, but it takes 45 ~ 60 days to germinate. Seeds germinate fastest at 20 ~ 25℃. In order to germinate well, it is suitable to sow in the soil at a depth of 5 cm and a temperature of 5 ~ 6℃. During germination, it absorbs 120% ~ 170% of the seed weight. The seedling stage is from the appearance of cotyledons to the end of peeling young roots, and about 6 ~ 8 true leaves can grow for about 30 days. From the primary cortex of the root to the ground, the leaves reach the peak, and the period with more leaves is the multi-leaf period, which generally lasts for about 30 days. This period is the peak period of growth rate and daily average growth of sugar beet leaves, and the growth rate of root tuber is also the fastest growth stage. After the flourishing period, the root tuber and its sugar increased for about 40 days. As soon as we entered this growth period, the growth center began to shift from the ground to the underground, the growth of leaves gradually weakened, and a large number of photosynthetic products began to be transported from the leaves to the underground, and the root tuber expanded rapidly, and the sugar in the root meat and root increased simultaneously. In about 40 days, the growth of root tuber reached more than 50% of the whole growth period. From then on, it enters the mature stage of root tuber, which lasts for about 40 days until harvest. During this period, the vegetative growth basically stopped, the green leaves decreased obviously, the dead leaves increased greatly, the root body of tuberous roots rarely increased, the root meat almost stopped increasing, and the sugar content in roots increased obviously.

In the second year of life, fodder beet mainly carries out reproductive growth. Reproductive growth can be divided into leaf stage, bolting stage, flowering stage and seed formation stage. The leaf stage is the time from the time when the planted mother roots grow leaves to the time when bolting begins. The bolting period is from bolting to flowering. From the end of bolting, a few species germinate and bloom separately until all species bloom, and the flowering period is from bloom to two-thirds of each flower. From 1/3 seed to 2/3 bulb has turned yellow, and the endosperm of the seed is powdery, which is the seed formation stage.