The sugar beet harvest in eastern Montana is over and processing the beets into sugar is underway. YPR’s Kay Erickson gets us caught up on this year’s crop.
2019 was not a good year for sugar beets in Montana.
"We don’t talk about 2019," says Duane Peters said, agriculture manager for Sidney Sugars Incorporated, a factory that contracts roughly 30,000 acres worth of sugar beets through area growers.
Where rain and cold temperatures last year made it one of the worst growing seasons, this year is making up for it.
"We are happy. It was a good harvest," Peters said.
Peters says growers are averaging 29 point one tons per acre.
"The tons were a little light but we had some front incident from last spring to early this fall which I think held back the yield," Peters said.
Where the yield may not be as high as anticipated, Peters says a sugar content of 19.21 percent has growers and processors smiling.
"We have to go back to 1992 to find sugar that high. So we’re very happy with the beets and very very happy for the growers and we just glad we had a good crop and a good harvest," Peters said.
Sugar beets are estimated to be a $100 million industry in south central and eastern Montana.
