Published 2:30 pm Wednesday, October 4, 2023
As his sugar beet harvest continued, Zach Patterson of Paul, Idaho, liked much of what he saw — considering the challenges of the early season.
“The beets that escaped the hailstorms did exceptionally well,” he said.
Amalgamated Sugar’s more than 700 grower-owners expect to harvest 186,884 acres of sugar beets in Idaho, Oregon and Washington, officials with the Boise-based cooperative said. Growers planted about 180,000 in 2021 and 2022.
Harvest for long-term storage started Oct. 2 in the Magic Valley of south-central Idaho and the Upper Snake River Valley to the east, said Brodie Griffin, vice president of agriculture.
Heavy rains during the Sept. 30-Oct. 1 weekend led to “very minimal” harvest activity Oct. 2-3 and slower progress through the rest of the week, he said.
“We did have rain in the Treasure Valley,” Griffin said, referring to the lower-elevation growing area in southwestern Idaho and southeastern Oregon, “but not nearly as much as the Magic Valley.”
Final accumulated sugar content was expected to be 17-17.5% after rising in the last week of September, he said. Last year, sugar content for all beets delivered in September averaged 16.19% after increasing sharply in the final week.
Amalgamated harvests some beets early to optimize processing operations and quality. In the Treasure Valley, early harvest continued as of Oct. 3 and the company expected harvest for long-term storage to start Oct. 9, Griffin said.
Nampa-area grower Russ Shroll, who harvested a lot of “earlies,” was about two-thirds finished Oct. 4.
“My tonnage is going to be off a little bit,” largely due to the “extremely cold” spring, he said. “Sugar content looks average or slightly above.”
The crop started slowly, Shroll said. He planted later than usual, and subsequently had “a decent amount of replants.”
His sugar beets caught up, thanks to good midseason conditions, including ample heat units but no long periods with temperatures too high, he said.
In the eastern Magic Valley, Patterson replanted about one-third of his crop.
“We had a terrible spring here,” including rain and hail in May and June, he said. His early-harvested beets yielded about 32 tons per acre if they were hit by hail and 42 if they were not.
“We had quite a few beets affected by those early storms,” Patterson said. “We had a good summer.”
Remnants of Hurricane Hilary, which developed in the western Pacific Ocean in August, “brought humidity and caused Cercospera Leaf Spot to spread later in the growing season,” said Griffin of Amalgamated Sugar.
The fungal disease this year was “as bad as I’ve ever seen it,” said Chris Payne, who farms between Ontario and Vale, Ore. However, “if you don’t have Cercospera in the field, the crop looks really good.”
Growers across the region are optimistic about the 2023 crop, said Samantha Parrott, executive director of the Snake River Sugarbeet Growers Association.
“Growers have expressed that we have a solid crop this year that probably won’t break records but will be about average,” she said.
As for the schedule, “last harvest it was extremely dry, so even though there is a delay, growers are happy to have the moisture,” Parrott said.
“Rain is always a challenge,” said association board president Doug Evans of Blackfoot, in eastern Idaho. “We just deal with it and do the best we can.”
