Sugarbeet Feature Stories

By Jim Ruhlman

BAY CITY, Mich. - Michigan Sugar Company’s 2017 crop got off to a slow start with much of the planting taking place in late April and early May. Late April rains caused some significant crusting which affected stands in some areas of the growing region. The crop matured nicely through May and mid-June, but very heavy rains in late June proved to be too much for 15% of the crop.  While very few acres were abandoned, root disease took its toll on the affected acres.  

Fast forward to late August and the entire month of September and our entire crop was desperate for rainfall.  The drought-like conditions during this timeframe were too much for our crop to produce abundant yields.  Our average grower sugar came in at a healthy 18.5%, but our yield was a disappointing 25.5 tons per acre average. Cercospora Leafspot continues to be a big threat to the sugarbeet crop in Michigan, but growers did a fantastic job in controlling the disease through timely and frequent applications of fungicide.

By Tom Knudsen
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WAHPETON, N.D. - Sugarbeet seed issue took place March 30-31st and April 3-5th. The planting level for the 2017 crop was set at a range of 1.25 to 1.35 acres per share of stock. Planting was underway the second week of April. By mid-April, 13,000 acres (0.18 acres per share) had been planted. By the end of April, 58,000 acres had been planted. Planting was essentially completed by May 15th when 95,000 acres (1.32 acres per share) were planted.  Rainfall was timely for the planting of the 2017 crop which led to good germination and emergence. There was a significant freeze period the mornings of April 27th, 28th, and 29th when temperatures dropped to the upper 20’s. Little damage was noted on emerged and subterranean seedlings for the most part. Approximately 1,000 acres were replanted out of the total 95,000 acres planted this past season. Replant was primarily due to wind, crust and, to a lesser extent, frost.

Crop samples in July indicated another very good crop was in the works. That was confirmed a month later when the August samples were taken. The ag staff put the yield at 31.9 tons per acre.  The initial tentative corral on harvested acres was set at 15 percent; meaning 85 percent of the acres were eligible for harvest. That number was ultimately reduced in two stages to five percent.

Preharvest was underway Monday, September 11th. Main harvest commenced October 4th. Harvest 2017 was a lengthy drawn out affair due to intermittent warm temperatures which required numerous shutdowns. Harvest ended November 1st.  Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative growers harvested 90,172 acres and delivered a total of 2,909,615 tons of sugarbeets.  The crop averaged 17.0 percent sugar content, 89.4 percent purity, had a tare of 2.5 percent and yielded 32.3 tons per acre.

By Duane Peters

SIDNEY, Mont. – 2017 started off with drier than expected soil moisture.  As growers started to plant, we all realized that most fields would need to be irrigated to provide moisture to have equal emergence.  We were very thankful for our irrigation project. Irrigation water was available and many growers irrigated. The crop had very uneven emergence due to field dryness. As spring turned to summer, the irrigation became very important.  We had a drier than normal year. Rainstorms were far and few between.  We were three inches below normal for the months of June, July, and August.

Disease levels were very minimal due to dry weather conditions. Sidney Sugars started an early harvest this year, and that went very well.  Harvest started around September 12th.  Full harvest started on October 1st.  We completed harvest on October 26th.  Yield was 31.25 ton per acre and sugar was 17.99%.  Overall, we considered this a very successful growing year.  Beets appear to be storing well for the above normal winter temps.  We expect slice to finish about mid-February.

By Jerry Darnell

DENVER, Colo. – The 2017 growing season started off ahead of normal in all Western Sugar regions except for the Lovell, Wyoming area which had above normal precipitation during planting. The growing region had a full supply of irrigation water.  The cooperative had minimal replant and abandoned acres in all areas.  Sugarbeet diseases and pests were very minimal this year across the cooperative.   

Above normal temperatures in October caused the sugarbeet harvest to be delayed for an extended period of time.  There were several days that no harvest was allowed because of the warm soil temperatures that would not allow for a long term storable sugarbeet in the pile.   Ambient and soil temperatures finally cooled and full harvest was allowed to resume at the end of October.  Early harvest started on August 28th in Billings, Montana and harvest was completed on November 22nd in Fort Morgan, Colorado.   

Yields in the Montana region averaged 36.6 tons per acre, with a 17.41% sugar. Lovell, Wyoming averaged 27.9 tons per acre with a 17.20% sugar.  Nebraska averaged 31.2 tons with a 17.45% sugar and Colorado 35.4 tons with a 17.15% sugar.   Sugarbeet processing is scheduled to be completed in late February/early March.

By Mike Greear

WORLAND, WY – 2017 started off very wet and as a result over half the crop was planted late.  On average the crop was 10 to 14 days behind. Overall, we had great stands and with good weather in June, July and August and the crop tried to catch up, but it just did not get to our new “normal”.

We had planned an earlier than normal harvest to mitigate harvest and pile risk; however, just like last year, Mother Nature had other plans and rain delayed our start up yet again. Nonetheless, we were able to start major harvest activates on the 28th and despite a lot of mud 100% of the crop was harvested and pile.

The company-wide average for the crop was 30.3 tons per acre and 17.97% sugar. Overall, not a bad crop, but we have come to expect higher tonnage.
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After harvest, we had great weather for storing beets and crop stored well. Nearly all our remaining beets are on forced-air ventilation and we do not expect much pile loss. The campaign is slated to finish in late January.

By Mike Spieker | Photos by Mohamed Khan.

​Editor’s Note: In the November/December 2016 issue, we recapped the severity of Cercospora during the 2016 growing season throughout North Dakota and Minnesota. In 2017, the disease was much less significant in some areas. Several factors played into that result, such as management and/or weather. In this article, we cover Cercospora’s effects on the 2017 growing season from northern North Dakota to southern Minnesota. ​