Warm Temperatures Delay Sugar Beet Harvest

Sugar beet harvest is finally underway in southeast Wyoming.

Jerry Darnell, South Region Agricultural Manager for Western Sugar, says this year's unusually warm temperatures set harvest back by about a week.

"Overall, here in the Nebraska/Southeast Wyoming area we're 37% complete with harvest," said Darnell. "It was too warm Monday and we think it's going to be too warm Tuesday. We're hoping to resume harvest on Wednesday."

Darnell says despite the setback, this year's crop is shaping up to be a good one.

"We're planning on processing a little over 600,000 tons there at the Torrington factory," said Darnell. "So far, we're having excellent quality beets coming into Torrington. We're averaging 17.5% sugar with a 1.26 SLN."

Western Sugar announced in May that they would be closing the Torrington facility, but Darnell says it's still too early to know if this will be the last campaign at the factory.

"That still hasn't been decided," said Darnell. "We're going to make a lot of changes here at the Scottsbluff plant, and so until we know for sure everything's ready to go, there will be no definite dates on Torrington."