Growers will plant an estimated 1.16 million acres of sugarbeets in 2016, a number virtually unchanged from 2015, according to the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service Prospective Plantings report released March 31.
Although the total number of acres to be planted in the United States is unchanged, numbers of planted acres within sugarbeet producing states vary. Sugarbeet plantings are below 2015’s plantings in five of 11 states and above last year’s in four of the 11 states listed in the NASS report. Sugarbeet plantings in California stayed the same and 2015 figures were not available for Washington.
The five states that will likely plant fewer sugarbeets this year than last are Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Oregon and Wyoming.
Michigan is expected to be down planted acres just slightly, from 152,000 in 2015 to 151,000 in 2016; Montana will plant 42,000 acres this year compared with 44,000 last; Nebraska will seed 41,000 acres, down quite a bit from 2015 when 47,500 were planted; Oregon is down from 9,000 acres in 2015 to 7,000 in 2016; and Wyoming comes in at 30,000 in 2016, compared with 31,500 last year.
The four states that will likely plant more sugarbeets this year than last are Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota and North Dakota.
Colorado is expected to plant nearly 33,000 acres, up from 27,500 in 2015; Idaho will plant 174,000 acres, up from 171,000; Minnesota, by far the leader in sugarbeet acres, will seed 444,000 acres compared with 443,000 last year; North Dakota will plant about half the number of acres as its eastern neighbor: 210,000, up slightly from 208,000 in the previous year.
California’s numbers are a little tricky. The numbers – 25,000 acres this year and last – correspond to year of intended harvest for fall planted beets in central California and year of planting for overwintered beets in central and southern California.
Washington’s 2016 sugarbeet acreage is projected to be 2,000 acres. Figures for both 2014 and 2015 were not available.
Source: www.farmandranchguide.com