Final tally for the number of sugarbeet acres replanted in Idaho is 70,000, according to Vic Jaro, vice president of agriculture for Amalgamated Sugar Company.
Jaro confirmed today that the number jumped from 63,000 to the final figure when all counts by fieldmen were made.
It represents the largest replant of sugarbeets in the company’s history. Most were frozen on the morning of May 9 when temperatures, especially in the eastern portion of the state, dipped as low as 22 degrees F.
But Idaho beet growers aren’t the only ones affected by frost. Growers in the Western Grower Cooperative in Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado and Montana had to replant at least 30,000. Western also lost another 10,000 acres when they were not replanted because of drought, lateness of the season, and the expense of a third replant in some cases.
Because Amalgamated allowed a 2 percent overplant to make up any differential, it is believed some potato growers were able to shift acres to allow for beet planting because they lost Simplot contracts this spring.
American Crystal Sugar Company in Moorhead, MN, reported it had to replant 61,000 acres after being hit by cold weather on May 24.
Nationwide, it brings total replant acres to nearly 170,000. It is an all-time record for the United States sugarbeet industry. It will also cost growers and the three companies involved hundreds of thousands of dollars in seed purchases and lost yield.
Seed companies cooperated fully, scrambling to find enough seed for the replants.