The past couple of years the Sugarbeet Harvest has dealt with several weather-related challenges from snow and freezing conditions to record rainfall. However, Crookston Factory Manager Ryan Wall said those types of challenges don’t appear present this season as the harvest is set to kick off Tuesday night. “It’s looking really good,” said Wall. “The forecast the next 7-10 days looks very favorable. We’re coming into harvest with pretty dry conditions, so hoping for a nice, calm harvest.”
The pre-pile also went smoothly and the sugarbeets being processed have looked good thus far said Wall. “Pre-piles went great,” said Wall. “Operation in the factory has been excellent. The new extraction plant we’ve put in has been performing really well. We’ve had really good throughput rates, good recovery numbers. Beet quality coming in has been excellent so far, so overall pre-pile has been a success.”
According to Wall some acres, called at-risk acres, will be held back from the harvest until the total tonnage from the harvest is calculated. “At this time, there is always the at-risk acres,” said Wall. “We want to make sure we’re able to store and process them all. There will be a percentage we’ll wait until the end to decide whether or not we’ll harvest. On a normal day, valley-wide, not just this district, the ag department can put down one million tons a day when things are going really well. As far as the length of harvest, it’s all weather dependent but with the way the forecast is looking, I think we should have a pretty good harvest. There are always those at-risk acres at the end that they’ll release once we know what the total tonnage will be in the valley.”
Wall said they are still not where they’d like to be for staffing in the factory, but the ag department is sufficiently staffed. “I think the harvest staffing is looking pretty good,” said Wall. “I visited with the ag department this morning and they seem to be pretty confident they have enough people. Staffing in the factory continues to be a slight challenge. We’re not seeing the number of applicants coming in the building we typically would see this time of year. And I don’t know what that’s attributed to but it’s definitely not where it should be with staffing in the factory.”
With fewer factory employees Wall said there is an increase in burnout and pressure on the factory staff. “What it means is running short at times which puts a lot of pressure on the other employees,” said Wall. “It also means a lot of overtime opportunities for people, which can wear people out. That’s the two negative impacts of not having staff.”
The Beet Beat will also return to KROX Tuesday at midnight with Jake and Karl.
