The sugar beet harvest continues across the Red River Valley, but warmer temperatures have already caused a few shutdowns, mostly affecting daytime crews at American Crystal Sugar.
American Crystal Sugar Agronomy Manager Travis Pederson told KROX that warm temperatures have not been helpful during the opening week, but crews have been able to work longer shifts most nights, and the focus has been on ensuring sugar beets are properly stored for spring use. “Overall, things are going well,” Pederson said. “As you mentioned, the weather throws us a curveball here in the stockpile, and the heat has been the main player so far. And because of that, we’ve mainly been only able to run nighttime shifts, usually anywhere from 12 to 14 hours, and the big reason for that is we need to store this crop for you know until next spring, and making sure that we put a product in the pile that’ll store and put the most sugar in the bin at the end of the day.”
Pederson noted that the warmer temperatures have helped dry out the fields following the heavy rains that hit the area in September, allowing digging operations to proceed more smoothly than expected and helping keep the crop growing through the remainder of the harvest. “With the rain we had at the beginning of the month, I guess one silver lining is with the warmer temperatures that have dried out the ground, and the digging has gone, I think, decent for the guys so far now, and the sugar beet crop will continue to improve with this weather as well. So the beets are still growing and sugaring up. So that’s a positive as well.”
Temperatures are expected to drop by Monday, possibly bringing precipitation to the area throughout the week, but Pederson remains optimistic that harvest operations will return to a regular schedule. “After the warm-up, a front is moving in with some cooler temperatures, and with that, normally there’s some precipitation as well,” explained Pederson. “So we will have the weather, but hopefully we can dodge the rain showers to have a good week of digging. That’ll be, I think, the main factor moving forward, but it’s nice to see the cooler temperatures next week.”
Stay tuned to KROX for continued updates through the sugar beet harvest season.
