Early frost leaves substantial beet tonnage in the ground
By COLLIN GALLANT on November 9, 2019.
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant About half of one of the largest specialty crops in southeast Alberta will remain in the ground, Lantic Sugar and the Alberta Sugar Beet Growers Association announced on Thursday, and potato growers as well are being hit hard by early frost. “We have had three severe cold weather events in October,” said Arne Bergen-Henengouwen, a grower based in Picture Butte and the president of the ASBG. It has members through Taber, Forty Mile County and Rolling Hills areas which supply the Lantic’s Roger’s Sugar plant in Taber. “Anytime you leave 45 per cent of your crop in the ground, it’s gonna hurt bottom lines. Most have crop insurance, and that will cover some expenses, but this will have a huge ripple effect.” Lantic said Thursday it will abandon the harvest and is making alternative arrangement to supply customers. The Taber plant is described as the only facility in Canada that produces sugar from domestic sources. In October the provincial round-up of crop conditions published by the province stated that frost was leading to damage in both beet and potato crops that were being rejected by buyers. That came after early predictions of a bumper yield this summer for beet growers. “We started out in September with decent quality; for tonnage there was some pretty big numbers,” said Bergen-Henengouwen. Sugar beat growers aren’t the only area producers who will leave a substantial amount of their 2019 crop in the ground. While essentially all grain and pulse crops are off, according to the latest Alberta Crop report, about 12 per cent of potato acres will likely be abandoned. The report, dated to Nov. 5, also states that major crop yields will wind up about one-fifth less than long-term averages while other areas of the province are reporting yields even or one-fifth higher. However, quality for grains and pulses in the Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, Foremost and Strathmore regions was higher. The top two grades of spring wheat, durum, oats, barley and dry peas were above average, though feed barley and No. 1 canola, comprising 68 per cent of the entire crop, was lower. The Saskatchewan Crop report doesn’t break out yields by region, but reports the harvest is essentially complete in the southwest. Moisture ratings have risen to 80 per cent adequate for both crop land and pasture. 15-14
