GRAFTON, N.D. - Ernie Dusek was among the northern Red River Valley farmers replanting sugar beets after a mid-May frost.

The North Dakota Agricultural Statistics Service says frost damaged canola, flax, corn, sugar beets, alfalfa and soybeans that had emerged by the killing frost on May 13. Planting is ahead of schedule, but emergence has been slow because of cold temperatures. About 22 percent of the state's sugar beets had emerged by the time the frost hit. That total had increased to 55 percent by May 17.

American Crystal Sugar Co. reported that only about 12,400 acres of beets had been replanted, valleywide, by the middle of the week. The majority, about 7,800 acres, were in the Moorhead, Minn., factory district, and the next largest was 3,600 acres in the Drayton, N.D., factory district.

Replants still are "pretty small," compared with some 500,000 acres planted, says Jeff Schweitzer, company spokesman.

"It takes quite a number of days to assess fields," Schweitzer says. He says beets planted after May 15 statistically have a lower likely yield as days to maturity decline.

Dusek and his brother, Dan, manage about 3,000 acres in Dusek Farms, including about 1,000 acres of sugar beets. Another 1,200 acres are wheat, and the rest are dry edible beans - navy and pinto beans.

"We're doing about the same as what we had last year, as our rotation demands it," Ernie Dusek says.

The Duseks started planting wheat April 13 and started with beets April 21.

"We were putting pre-plant chemicals down and then our beets froze out," Dusek says. "We're going to end up replanting half or two-thirds of them."

Actually, Dusek isn't clear about whether the beets froze out or were damaged significantly by the wind that came just before the 25-degree temperatures.

"I don't know anyone who knows whether they lost them to wind or frost," he says.

Otherwise, moisture conditions have been good. The farm got a couple of small showers in April and about 2 inches last week.

View All News