The Sugar Beet harvest is coming to a close throughout the Red River Valley.
Harvest was delayed from the usual October 1 start date, but once harvest started mother nature cooperated for a smooth harvest. “Mother nature decided the drop some rain on us, so we started off in the mud,” said American Crystal Sugar Crookston Factory Agronomy Manager Travis Pederson. “As things dried up, we had a really nice run to close things out the last ten days, and we are overall satisfied with the way the harvest has gone.”
This year’s sugar beet crop was above average in both tonnage and sugar content. Given what mother nature threw at them they were satisfied with the result. “With a little bit later start on average and pockets of less rain than we see seasonally,” said Pederson. “A very nice crop in not only tonnage, but sugar content as well.”
The American Crystal Harvest Reduction Policy had been implemented. “We put our Harvest Reduction Policy in place, which ultimately means we have a few acres in the ground because we are not able to store and process the entire crop in a timely fashion,” said Peterson. A small amount of the crop will be left in the field. Peterson also said he appreciates the effort and that there was a lot of extra traffic. They brought in over 200 seasonal employees to the Crookston Factory district alone to get the harvest complete, and he is thankful for the community support.
