Dry Fields Speed Sugar Harvest
All Done By Oct. 20
By Lois Kerr

Russ Fullmer, Sidney Holly Sugar’s ag manager, reports that area growers have completed another successful sugarbeet harvest. Thanks to dry fields and cooperating weather, growers completed this year’s harvest by Oct. 20. “Dry fields, a dry harvest and light tonnage allowed growers to get in the majority of the crop in two weeks,” Fullmer says. “Due to the lighter tonnage, growers could harvest more acres per day, we had no weather slowdowns this year, and we saw a smooth harvest.”

He adds, “Beets went into the piles fairly clean, we didn’t see a lot of dirt, so beets should cool down and store well if we have a cool winter.”

Harvest continued uninterrupted on the north end of the factory area, but growers in the south saw one day’s delay because of cold weather. “We had a few scares with some freezing temperatures,” Fullmer states. “We have weather stations all over, and usually the north end gets colder and the south end stays warmer, but this year things flip-flopped. Miles City and Glendive got cold. We stopped harvest there for one day, but started up again the following morning.”

Sugar levels ended up just slightly below normal. Yields, however, were several tons below yearly averages. “Sugar ended up about 18%,” Fullmer remarks. “This is only about one-tenth of a percent below our three-year average.”

He continues, “It’s a little harder to get a handle on tonnage at this point. We had 1400 acres accepted into PIK, but with our acre survey, we expect tonnage will average 19.5 to 19.8 tons per acre. Our average is 21.8 tons per acre, so we are below normal.”

Fullmer believes the crop did quite well considering the tough growing conditions young beets faced in the spring. “I was taught that beets develop their potential in the first six weeks,” Fullmer comments. “If beets get a good start in the first six weeks, they will yield and do well regardless of what they face later on in the growing season. This year showed this. Beets had a tough six weeks at first, and it showed.”

Fullmer points to the windy, dry conditions in May. “It was a tough spring,” he acknowledges. “Growers had to irrigate up, and some growers were late in getting water on the beets. It was dry, it was windy and beets blew out, weed control was tough, and some areas faced devastating hailstorms. All these things cause major yield reductions.”

Besides the problems growers faced in the spring, growers also saw a major fungicide used in the fight against Cercospora fail to control the disease this year. “We had a fungicide for Cercospora that didn’t work this year,” Fullmer notes. “However, we do have new products for next year, and we can mix treatments which will prevent this problem from reoccurring next year.”

He adds, “Growers did what they should in a timely manner, but we saw late season Cercospora due to this fungicide failure. This hurts both sugar and tonnage.”

In spite of the problems, on the whole the sugarbeet crop turned out well. “We’ll never have a perfect year,” Fullmer comments. “Growers did the best as can be expected with the weather problems they faced this year.”

Fullmer already has set his sights on next year. “Our biggest concern now is what kind of winter it will be,” he notes. “We need lots of snow in the mountains; we need a wet winter in the Rockies to bring up water levels.”

Fullmer also expects his staff and the growers will continue to work on improvements in nitrogen usage. “We still have work to do with nitrogen recommendations and soil sampling,” he remarks. “However, this is ongoing work that never ends.”