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Southern MN Beet Sugar Coop expects smaller than normal crop

The vice president of agriculture for the Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative is anticipating a smaller than normal crop.

Todd Geselius says their harvest started about 10 days ago, and it’s common for growers to go after the poorer fields first.

“A lot of times those beets aren’t as storable, so they get them out of the way and we don’t have to store them long-term.  So it’s a little tough to say just yet, but we’ve been anticipating, based on our root samples, about a 24 1/2 ton crop.  Which would definitely be a little smaller than what we’ve been used to having the last few years.”

He tells Brownfield the beet harvest started well.

“We were actually delayed for about three days because of rain right when we started.  Then we had a nice run last week, then got a bunch of rain yesterday.  So it’s been a bit of a challenge these last couple days.”

Geselius says the coop is in pre-pile mode, only harvesting as many beets as the factory can slice every day.  He estimates harvest is only five to six percent done in the Renville area.