Farmers who grow sugarbeets for the Moorhead-based cooperative began hauling them to its five Red River Valley factories on Tuesday, Aug. 17. American Crystal Sugar has factories in the Minnesota cities of Moorhead, Crookston and East Grand Forks and the North Dakota towns of Drayton and Hillsboro.
Farmers typically harvest about 15 percent of their crop during the pre-pile harvest and deliver it to the American Crystal Sugar Co. factories, which begin their processing campaigns. The cooperative’s farmer-shareholders will harvest about 404,000 acres of sugar beets this year, estimated Dan Gowan, American Crystal Sugar's director of agriculture.
Farmers who grow sugarbeets for the cooperative planted 409,000 this spring, but lost about 5,000 to drown-out and diseases. Sugarbeet fields in an area north of Drayton and east toward Hallock, Minn., particularly were hard hit by heavy rains earlier this summer that flooded fields, Gowan said.
Early estimates peg American Crystal Sugar Co. this year’s sugar beet yields at an average of 28.4 tons per acre, Gowan said. The cooperative estimates total production at about 11 million tons per acre, similar to 2018.
"That's not a poor crop, whatsoever," said Gowan, noting the estimate could increase or decrease, depending on weather conditions.
"The race is on, from this point, to see if the estimates holds one way or the other. If we could get some dry weather, if it stays hot, we're going to be higher," Gowan said.
Last year, farmers harvested only 7.7 million tons of sugarbeets after wet weather, snowy conditions and a freeze stymied the harvest. Farmers left about one-third or 115,000 acres of sugar beets unharvested in 2019, resulting in lower payments and an abbreviated slicing campaign.
At the onset of this year’s harvest, field conditions in Crookston, Moorhead and east of Hillsboro are the wettest, Gowan said. Rainfall amounts, varying from 2 inches to 6 inches, fell in those areas late last week.
American Crystal Sugar Co. farmers and company officials are hoping that the weather during the next two months will be dry, which would boost both yields and sugar content. The cooperative estimates the content of the beets at slightly more than 14 percent, Gowan said.
“We would like to see the sugar higher,” he said. “Because of the super saturation throughout the valley, it’s lower than we would like to see.
“If we had no rain from this point on, the sugar content would go up,” he said.
After a 2019 harvest that was fraught with harvest problems from beginning to end because of excessive rains and an early snowstorm, American Crystal Sugar Co. is hoping that this one will go more smoothly.
“We’re not asking for anything special, but an average harvest would be exceptional,” Gowan said. “After last year, it would be very good therapy to have a decent harvest. Everybody needs it.”
The cooperative plans on harvesting in earnest on Oct. 1, but because the ground is saturated, will monitor weather forecasts and may adjust that date a few days earlier or late, Gowan said.
“We’re concerned about ground water. This year, everything from one end to another is hydrated,” he said. “We say Oct. 1, but we’re going to watch the weather systems extremely carefully.”