EAST GRAND FORKS, Minn.—The season is almost over for one of our area's largest cash crops.
Some farmers are enjoying record-breaking harvests, but others not so much.
According to American Crystal Sugar, yields for farmers in our area are up more than 9 percent from last year, which was also a record breaking year. Although averages are up across the board, they're not up for every farmer.
99 percent of beets in the Red River Valley are now harvested, and farmers are pleasantly surprised with their yield after a soggy summer.
David Thompson, Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association: "It's a decent crop, yes. We're happy with it. Payment should be OK so we'll just go on and do another year after this."
Tonnage-wise, this beet harvest was pretty good. And the sugar content isn't so bad either. But depending on where their fields are located, some farmers got hit much harder than others, like Jared Sands of Alvarado.
Sands: "We did destroy 200 acres of our sugarbeet crops with riff rot from back in the early part of August, when they sat in water for about 10 days when it flooded. Took care of 'em, that way so we didn't have to dig 200 acres of 'em."
Source: www.wdaz.com