BILLINGS, Mont.—There was a wisp of steam from the Western Sugar factory Friday as workers began feeding beets into mills in Billings and Lovell, Wyo.
Farmers are expecting an average harvest after several years of monster yields, said Randall Jobman, Western’s senior agriculturalist.
“We haven’t even run the labs yet to see what we’ve got, but we have an estimate of what we consider just slightly above average tonnage,” Jobman said. Fields have been producing more than 30 tons an acre for the last several years. “We've been drier this year, but have had plenty of irrigation water and we had good moisture in the spring. All in all, we’ve got a very good crop growing.”
Statewide, sugarbeet farmers rate 82 percent of their crop’s condition as good to excellent, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. The quality is significantly better than the 5-year average, according to NASS estimates.
Near Shepherd, farmer Bill Michael said the beets he started digging Thursday looked good, but he had many tons to go. Every growing season has its challenges, Michael said.
Source: billingsgazette.com