Stands are Thinner Than We’d Like

The beet crop in the southern Red River Valley has struggled. “It’s been a stagnant month for growth it seems like,” said Mike Metzger, vice president of agriculture, Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative. “The beets aren’t quite as big as we’d like to see them.” Metzger says the spring weather has been tough on the crop, especially the 90 degree heat and 40-mile-per-hour winds in mid-May. “We don’t have many fields that are picket fence,” said Metzger. “On 22 inch rows, we’d normally like to see 180 plants per 100 feet of row and I’d say the average for this crop is 140-to-150; it’s very doable, but the crop is thinner than we’d like to see.”