It’s been a bitter harvest for many Minnesota and North Dakota sugarbeet farmers.
Nearly a third of the crop in some parts of the two states is stuck frozen in the fields—where it’ll be left to rot—after a wet October delayed the harvest until the weather turned too cold and the ground froze.
Insurance will cover only part of farmers’ losses.
Minnesota is the largest sugarbeet-growing state in the nation, and North Dakota is the second-largest. The two states account for 60 percent of U.S. sugarbeet production; beets account for more than half of the sugar produced in the U.S. every year.
American Crystal has not released the number of acres that were not harvested. The co-op has five processing plants in the Red River Valley.
Melting water from an early snow last month has aggravated flooding from heavy rains in September and October, leaving many sugarbeets frozen into place.