Summer’s end is coming into view with the first week of August now here, which means for many farmers around Crookston, that harvest of certain crops such as sugar beets is right around the corner. But due to a very wet spring and many unforeseen circumstances, the planting and growing seasons have been anything but ordinary for farmers and workers at American Crystal Sugar.
With the lasting effects of the rain and high snowfall being absorbed by the soil from the winter, farmers were forced to wait about three weeks from the usual time they begin planting at the beginning of May to near the end of it. Even when they were able to get the seed planted, June and July brought their own troubles for farmers and the crops. “Spring was a little wet, it was one of the wettest springs on record, and ultimately, we were about three weeks later than our average planting date, which is around May 5 for the previous few years. This year our average planting date in Crookston was around May 22,” said American Crystal Sugar Agronomy Manager Eric Ptasek. “We got off to a little bit of a late start, but then we had some pretty good moisture and emergence for the crop, and there was a lot of wind in June, which caused a bit of damage and replants. Then July came, and the heat turned on, and the crop is progressing pretty nicely through July, but we’re a little behind our normal timeframe for this time of year.”
Along with the weather, the growing season came with its own set of problems for farmers that caused some delays and replants, such as the root maggot (or Tetanops myopaeformis) area growing this year, causing growers to set traps to prevent any feeding larva from eating the roots and other parts of the sugar beets. “We were trapping flies up until the third or fourth week of June. We did catch plenty of flies and started treatment where needed. The peak for the fly count was the week of June 13, and so far, we haven’t seen a lot of damage from feeding larva on the maggot’s side of things,” said Ptasek.
Another big concern for farmers is the emergence of water hemp at the same time as the beets, which can cause field loss in the thick areas of the fields, Ptasek says for the end of the season and the next, the farmers will work to clean up what they can to prevent them from growing again for the next harvest. Another preparation the farmers have been doing is applying fungicide to prevent the growth of the Carbonyl sulfide (COS) fungus on the leaves of the sugar beets because of dew that sit on the leaves in the morning and through most of the night with the warm temperatures being a perfect environment for the fungus to grow. Ptasek recommends that farmers continue to stay on task with their spray program to prevent it from growing further on the plants.
American Crystal Sugar has been preparing for harvest but has not fully decided on when they plan to open and start their factories, saying that they’re debating on starting on the week of August 16 or the 23rd. Once the company decides on the start date of the harvest, they will contact the receiving stations to communicate the start date to the farmers assigned to those stations.
Ptasek also wanted to remind the farmers to be safe during the harvest time while they’re in the fields and on the roads to prevent any accidents with their equipment or in the sun. “I always put a reminder out for safety as harvest season gets started, whether its sugar beet or any other crop,” said Ptasek. “Pay attention on the roads and in the field. Try to get a nice, safe harvest, and take your time to do it safely.”
