Will This Year's Beet Crop Be Sweet?
August 29, 2005
Agweek, By Ann Bailey

Warm Fall Days Would Help Increase Sugar Content And Tonnage

Sugar beet farmers in North Dakota, Minnesota and Montana are hoping for warm weather during the next several weeks to increase tonnage and sugar content before harvest gets into full swing in October.

"Hopefully we have some good weather moving in the latter part of the growing season that will give this crop a boost," says Jeff Schweitzer, American Crystal Sugar Co. spokesman. Early estimates are that the Moorhead, Minn.-based co-op's crop will average in the 18-ton-per-acre range, which is below last year's average tonnage of 19.6 tons per acre and the five-year average of 19.5 tons per acre, Schweitzer says.

During the past few years content has been from 17.5 percent to 18 percent, Schweitzer says. Estimates of the sugar content of the 2005 sugar beet crop are not yet available.

"The critical time is in front of us. (We need) a nice, warm fall with cool nights."

American Crystal's "full" harvest will begin Oct. 1 at all five factory districts. The pre-pile harvest will be on a staggered schedule, depending on the factory's location. The pre-pile in the Minnesota districts of Moorhead and Crookston will begin Sept. 6; in the East Grand Forks, Minn., and in Hillsboro, N.D., districts on Sept. 13; and in the Drayton, N.D., district on Sept. 29.

Harvest in the Drayton district will begin the latest of the districts because it has received the most weather-related damage, Schweitzer says. So far, 8,000 acres of sugar beets in the Drayton district have been abandoned acres.

"We expect that number to go up," Schweitzer says. If yields are too low, more acres may be abandoned. The counties in the Drayton district with the highest number of abandoned acres are Pembina, County, N.D., and Kittson County, Minn., where rains drowned out and damaged beet fields.

Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative

At the southern end of the Red River Valley, rains during the growing season also destroyed about 8,000 sugar beet acres of farmers who grow for Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative in

Wahpeton, N.D.

Co-op officials estimate that slightly less than 100,000 of the 108,300 acres Minn-Dak growers planted will be harvested, says Chris DeVries, co-op public relations coordinator. The cooperative isn't expecting to have a pre-pile harvest this year. It hasn't been determined when the regular harvest will begin, but it likely won't be in September, DeVries.

"This will be one of the latest start-ups in the co-op's history," he says. Besides delaying the harvest, the rainy weather this summer also has resulted in smaller-sized beets.

Sidney Sugars

In eastern Montana and western North Dakota, farmers who grow sugar beets for Sidney Sugars will harvest about an average crop, says Steve Sing, general manager. After a cool, dry start to the growing season, June rains gave the sugar beets a boost.

"We went from below average to just about average. It's not a great crop, but it's not a disaster," he says. The crop will average about 20.7 tons per acre, near the five-year average, Sing estimates.

The harvest of Sidney Sugars growers will get into full swing Oct. 1, the same date harvest started last year. There will not be a pre-pile harvest.

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