Several days of drying conditions meant the resumption of the area sugarbeet harvest in northern Wyoming — and improved prospects that the balance of the 2020 crop will be delivered.
As of Sunday, beet receiving stations across the district were again operating 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week.
The warm and drying temperatures were well received. Growers were just getting back to harvesting operations almost a week after the Friday, Oct. 23 shutdown from freezing temperatures.
“When it thawed, it was too wet to dig,” said Ric Rodriguez, Heart Mountain grower and Western Sugar Cooperative board member.
“Weather looks good this week, and I feel confident we’ll get them all in by next weekend,” Rodriguez said. “Growers will make more progress as the ground continues to dry out.”
Western Sugar evaluated beets remaining in the ground when the arctic front swept through the area, and Rodriguez acknowledged the beets suffered frost damage.
“That’s no surprise,” he said, but the encouraging news is “the Lovell factory is running well on the frozen beets.”
“As long as we make sugar out of beets, regardless of whether they’re frozen or not, there’s no difference in payment [to growers],” Rodriguez added.
The frozen beets do require separate handling. They won’t store long term on piling grounds so they are separated in piles at the receiving stations for hauling to the factory at Lovell as soon as possible.
When last week’s excessive cold halted the harvest, 87 percent of the beets in the Lovell Factory District had been delivered.