After recent rains, American Crystal Sugar Company General Agronomist Joe Hastings said the sugar content is in the 18 percent range. “For tonnage, it has been a dynamic crop this year with it being all over the mark, but we’ll probably end up in the 28 ton area.” Red River Farm Network farm broadcaster Randy Koenen spent the past two weeks helping family harvest sugarbeets near Clara City, Minnesota. Koenen says there’s a good crop being harvested. “It is a big crop that caught some timely rains and of course pushing harvest until the middle of October brought more size to the beets so we’re well north of 30 ton (for an average) here on this crop.” Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative Vice-President of Agriculture and Research Mike Metzger says it’s been hard to hit the stride for harvest in the southern Red River Valley. “Mother Nature, bless her heart, she won’t give us 24 hours in a row to put beets on the ground,” said Metzger. “Between the heat and the rain and now with freezing temperatures, we’ve hit the trifecta.”
