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Western Sugar Cooperative has officially declared that any unharvested sugar beets will not be accepted. Last week’s announcement effectively ends the 2019 harvest — and means that all …
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Western Sugar Cooperative has officially declared that any unharvested sugar beets will not be accepted. Last week’s announcement effectively ends the 2019 harvest — and means that all the sugar beets remaining in the ground will not be processed into sugar.
Western Sugar Board Vice-Chairman Ric Rodriguez said that within the Lovell Factory District — which includes producers in the northern Big Horn Basin — 31 percent of this year’s planted acreage will not be harvested.
Area growers were hit by freezing temperatures in October that damaged local crops.
The cooperative made its first payment on the 2019 crop to growers and has notified growers that they can contact their insurance companies for claims on unharvested acres.
Western Sugar processes sugar beets from 850 growers in Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska and Colorado. Those in other areas fared better: Rodriguez said Montana producers harvested 87 percent of their crops while Nebraska and Colorado producers harvested all but a few acres.
The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service estimated on Nov. 3 that Wyoming’s sugar beet harvest was 70 percent complete, with producers harvesting 30,600 acres before the end of the year. That would represent a 100-acre drop from 2018.
