The sugar beet harvest is underway in southern Alberta with early reports of good yields and high sugar content.
Andrew Llewelyn-Jones, agricultural superintendent with sugar factory operator Lantic Sugar, said harvest began Sept. 28 and the factory in Taber began processing beets Oct. 1.
Lantic contracted 22,000 acres of sugar beets this year, many of them planted later than usual because of protracted contract negotiations in the spring.
However, Llewelyn-Jones said yield and quality look promising and on par with last year’s levels. The 2014 crop averaged sugar content of more than 19 percent.
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“It looks like we’re going to be pretty well on that again this year if the early indications are anything to go by,” he said.
“It should be another good one, certainly in the high 18s. The yields are going to be maybe not quite as good as last year. Last year, we had 28 and a half ton average. We’ll definitely be in the 27 to 28, by the way the first fields coming in, what they looked like.”
Ten percent of the crop had been harvested as of Oct. 7.
Gerald Third, executive director of Alberta Sugar Beet Growers, agreed harvest is going well and will be as good if not better than last year in terms of tonnage and sugar content.
He said digging will be halted when temperatures exceed 20 C to limit beet spoilage.
Tons of beets were lost last year because of deterioration in the piles over a mild winter. Third termed it “a train wreck” that must be avoided in the future.
Llewelyn-Jones said Lantic aims to limit spoilage.
“We are going to pay a lot more attention to warm days this year because there’s strong evidence … that if you put the beets in too warm into long-term storage, they do deteriorate more rapidly,” he said.
“We will shut down whenever it gets really warm and then hope that we can still get (the harvest) in.”
Beet piling stations were all running last week, although the station in Burdett, Alta., was closed for a time because of higher rainfall in that region on the weekend of Oct. 3-4.
Llewelyn-Jones said Lantic was able to hire a full complement of beet piling station and factory workers.
“It’s been easier to fill positions this year, so we’re thankful for that because … the last few years have been a real stress on my ag staff and also in the factory because we’ve been unable, sometimes, to fill every shift in the plant.”
Lantic employs 150 people full time and doubles that during harvest and beet processing in fall and winter.
barb.glen@producer.com
