Ideal weather, improved varieties and production management get the credit for stellar yields last year
A “wow” year is how Alberta Sugar Beet Growers president Arnie Bergen Henengouwen summarized 2017.
“The combination of glorious southern Alberta sun, water, soil, improved seed varieties and producer management has resulted in sugar beet yields this past year that no one ever thought possible in the great white north,” he told those at the Feb. 14 annual meeting.
The crop averaged 32.55 tonnes per acre and 19.35 percent sugar content. Some 26,900 acres were contracted.
Vice-president Gary Vucurevich described a stellar beet growing year in which hot temperatures necessitated heavy irrigation to keep the crop going.
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“The hot dry conditions, which can limit yields in many other southern Alberta crops, are ideal for sugar been development as long as we can apply enough water,” he said.
Vucurevich described a tense delay in the start of seeding due to negotiations between Lantic Sugar and UFCW Local 383, which delayed release of seed to growers.
However, seeding began April 28 and was fully concluded by May 10. Harvest started Sept. 22, was delayed by an Oct. 2 snowstorm and concluded Nov. 2.
A total of 876,929 tonnes of beets were delivered to the processor and average tonnage at 32.55 was a new record.
Lantic Sugar continues to process the 2017 sugar beet crop, and Lantic agricultural superintendent Bryan Avison said it will likely be finished within the next two to three weeks.
