Not pulling the plug yet on sugar beet harvest

Posted 11/12/19

Derailed again by freezing temperatures, the area sugar beet harvest is nearing an uncertain end.

But Western Sugar Cooperative is not yet throwing in the towel with 30 percent of the 2019 beet …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Not pulling the plug yet on sugar beet harvest

Posted

Derailed again by freezing temperatures, the area sugar beet harvest is nearing an uncertain end.

But Western Sugar Cooperative is not yet throwing in the towel with 30 percent of the 2019 beet crop still in the ground in the Lovell Factory District.

Co-op board members in the four-state region scrambled to an urgent conference call with management Monday morning.

“We have not called off the harvest yet,” said Ric Rodriguez, Heart Mountain grower and vice chairman of the beet board. “We will try to receive beets again when conditions allow and an assessment has been made on whether the beets can be processed into sugar without any problems.”

Though acknowledging a “grave situation” for the cooperative, he said they’re “still trying and hoping for the best outcome.”

Western Sugar has received beets from nearly 70 percent of contracted acreage in the Lovell district.

“A majority of the growers have harvested what they feel they can; there are a few who would like to do more,” Rodriguez said.

Muddy, wet and now frozen conditions have compounded problems for growers across the district.

“The factory has had some issues with the frozen beets being delivered, but continues to process and make sugar from them,” he added.

In the co-op’s Billings district, nearly 82 percent of beets have been received, and that state’s harvest has not been officially terminated either; a  small pocket of growers continues to try to deliver. Western Sugar’s harvest is ongoing in Nebraska and Colorado.

“Optimism is good in Nebraska and Colorado that they will get all but a few acres harvested and could finish this week if weather allows,” Rodriguez said.

Comments