SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb.—To most, cold weather is an inconvenience, but one crop is benefiting from the low temperatures.
Western Sugar Cooperative Agriculturist Michael Relka says the snow and cold weather is not hurting sugarbeets.
The main goal Relka says is to keep a uniform temperature across the 20 ft. high storage piles.
So when it does get cold, they lay wheat straw over the piles so the top layers don't freeze, and they have ventilation tubes in the middle of the piles to force cool air under them.
A good temperature for the beets is around 38 degrees.
With warmer temperatures in the past, Relka says the cold came at a good time.
"We have majority of the crop in the pile right now, so [the snow] really just affects our storage," says Relka. "We needed some cooler weather to help cool the piles down, I don't know if it needed to be this cold, but it will benefit us in some degree to get the beets cooled down in the storage pile aspect of things."
She adds that a few acres still remain for harvest, but with the low temperatures, there's a chance they wont get those piled.
The sugar content is around 17.5 percent, which Relka says is better than what they expected for this season, and the tonnage is very close to what they were projecting for their first sampling.
Source: www.kotatv.com