Crop escapes major freeze damage, but wet fields could lower sugar content

By DAVE WILKINS
Capital Press

U.S. Sugar beet farmers are scrambling to finish up harvest after winter-like conditions in October forced many to delay digging.

Some areas east of the Rockies in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado were hit with a near-record cold snap last month. Growers had a difficult time digging frozen beets out of the ground in some areas and there were concerns about getting beets processed before they spoiled, according to some reports.

In Park County, Wyo., officials declared the county a disaster area for sugar beets.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service Wyoming field office reported on Monday, Nov. 2, that just 66 percent of the state's sugar beet crop had been harvested compared with a five-year average of 79 percent by that date.

"There's no question that they have been having some real problems with harvest," said Jack Roney of the American Sugar Alliance. "That's a concern."

It could be December before industry officials know how much of the crop in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado will be processed, Roney said.

On the west side of the Rockies in Idaho, there were some brief harvest delays due to rain and snow, but the crop escaped any major freeze damage, Amalgamated Sugar Co. officials said.

"It seems like every week we got some rain that slowed harvest or stopped harvest in some areas," said Leonard Kerbs, agriculture manager for the Amalgamated Sugar Company's Twin Falls, Idaho, district.

A snow storm on Oct. 4 halted harvest for growers in south-central Idaho for a couple days, he said. But growers made the most of every opportunity they had to get in the fields and there's a potential for record yields, Kerbs said.

"As soon as things dried out, growers really brought in the crop as fast as they could." he said.

Harvest in Idaho is expected to wrap up this week.

The wet conditions this fall probably won't affect Idaho yields, but could reduce sugar content.

"Sugar content is lower than we were anticipating and hoping for," Kerbs said.

Idaho farmers are expected to harvest 5.56 million tons of sugar beets, a 54 percent increase from last year, according to the National Agriculture Statistics Service.

Amalgamated's field staff in early September projected average companywide yields of slightly more than 34 tons per acre, which if realized, will be close to a record.

Staff writer Dave Wilkins is based in Twin Falls, Idaho. E-mail: dwilkins@capitalpress.com .