LETHBRIDGE – Mother Nature continues to pound the southern Alberta sugar beet industry.
Harvest had already been postponed until Oct. 30 because farmers had dug more thawed sugar beets than could be handled.
Then southern Alberta was hit by 13 centimetres of wet snow and a severe blizzard Oct. 26-27. The storm brought much of the harvest to a halt in the foothills west of Claresholm, Alta.
Beet harvest and processing are in trouble because of the prolonged cold, wet weather.
Andrew Llewelyn-Jones agricultural superintendent for Lantic Sugar in Taber, Alta., said the weather has forced growers and the company into a programmed harvest, which means farmers are allowed to dig only the amount of beets that can be processed in a certain period of time.
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The company has 70,000 tonnes of frost-affected beets in storage and has shut down harvest operations until that pile can be reduced.
Llewelyn-Jones said the sugar beets already dug and stored in piles at receiving stations across the south are still in good condition and will be left to the last to process.
The company and officials of the Alberta Sugar Beet Growers Marketing Board are in daily contact assessing the crop condition and harvest plans.
Llewelyn-Jones said there are two major problems with the prolonged cold weather:
* Frozen leaves on sugar beet plant are difficult to remove, both in the field and at the sugar factory.
* Frozen beets are difficult to slice into slivers in preparation for processing. As well, frozen beets can cause rapid rotting in storage piles unless they are allowed to thaw before digging and storage.
Frost-damaged beets can be stockpiled, but not for long.
“The growers and the factory are going through some tough times,” said Llewelyn-Jones said.
“Harvesting and processing these beets is a real battle. It is a matter of continuing to work together.”
Lots to harvest
Growers had harvested about one-third of the crop before the adverse weather hit. About 50 percent of the crop, or 400,000 tonnes, had been dug as of Oct. 28. The company estimates the 2009 crop at 700,000 to 750,000 tonnes.
Llewelyn-Jones said ideal harvest-processing conditions are temperatures in the teens during the day and cooler at night, with no moisture.
“With a return to mild weather, the frost will come out of the beets and then we will be able to stack them in piles for up to two months,” he said.
“But those beets will be have to be processed quickly.”
Llewelyn-Jones said the harvest-processing campaign will remain on a day-to-day schedule until the weather improves.
Marketing board president Rob Boras said growers are hoping for an Indian summer.
“Southern Alberta weather has usually pulled us through before.”
The volume of beets that are processed is important this year because the new three-year contract offers price incentives related to the world sugar price. The world price is the highest it’s been in 20 years.
