The 2013 sugarbeet harvest is under way in Michigan's Chatham-Kent and Lambton County.
Approximately 80 farmers in the two municipalities are planning to harvest 10,000 acres of beets.
"We are just nicely under way,'' Wayne Martin of Grande Pointe, fieldman for Michigan Sugar Company, said Sept. 23.
As for yields, Martin said "they are all over the place - from poor to really good.''
An excessive amount of rain fell in both the former Dover and Chatham Townships during the growing season, drowning out large portions of many fields.
Martin said although a large amount of rain fell Friday night the ground soaked it up quickly.
"Harvesters are operating today,'' he said. "But we're only taking off what is needed at the processing plant.''
Locally-produced sugar beets are processed into sugar at the Michigan Sugar Company in Croswell, Mich.,, located north of Port Huron.
Martin said piling of freshly-harvested beets at the piling yard off Bear Line won't begin until mid-October.
He said more than 500 acres have been harvested over the past week.
Source: www.chathamdailynews.ca