Michigan's sugarbeet harvest is running later than the official number suggests, according to Clint Hagen, a grower from Ubly and president of the American Sugarbeet Growers Association. The USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service had the state at 50 per cent complete as of 1 November, up 20 points in a week. "We're probably in the mid-to-upper 30s percentage-wise," Hagen said.
Permanent piling, the start of Michigan Sugar Company's full-season campaign, normally begins around 22 October in the Thumb and Saginaw Valley. This year it began nearly two weeks later, because of autumn weather and a decision by the co-operative's leaders to wait. Severe late-summer drought in East-Central Michigan had limited early root growth and pulled sugar content down.
The wait paid off in the beet. Hagen said sugar was around 12 per cent when lifting began in mid-September, and that beets are now testing in the 17s, with a few contracts reaching 18 per cent.
The early harvest also dealt with a pest problem. "We faced root aphids just like we've never seen before," Hagen said. The company lifted many of the affected acres early rather than abandon them or put compromised beets into long-term storage. Cercospora leaf spot, historically the main leaf threat in the region, stayed under control, which Hagen credited to a Michigan Sugar program that encourages growers to start spraying early and stay consistent. Michigan Sugar has 865 grower-owners in the state.
The dry ground is now the harder problem. USDA data rate Michigan topsoil moisture 42 per cent short to very short and subsoil 43 per cent. Dry soil has cut the amount of dirt arriving at the piling stations but is breaking machinery. "A lot of vibration on the equipment, a lot of metal breaking just from fatigue," Hagen said.
Michigan Ag Today's chief meteorologist, Ryan Martin, expects lake-effect cloud and spotty drizzle through the weekend, a dry spell from Monday to Wednesday, another cold surge on Thursday 12 November, and sunny, drier conditions from about 14 November.
With soybeans 81 per cent harvested and corn at 43 per cent, 11 points behind the five-year average, farms are moving labour to beets. Hagen predicted that close to 90 per cent of the crop could be in the pile within two weeks, and urged growers to take care on rural roads and in the field.
Photo: Kolforn / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0), harvested sugar beet in Norfolk, England, not Michigan
Source: Michigan Ag Today
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