The mini-harvest for sugar beets started Monday at a trio of receiving stations, with the main harvest still slated to begin Oct. 1.
Andrew Llewelyn-Jones, agricultural superintendent for Lantic Inc., said the beets that come in during the mini-harvest go right into processing to get the plant in Taber up and running for the main harvest.
“We’ll open stations where growers are indicating they will go.”
Last week, he said those stations involved in the mini-harvest were Vauxhall, Taber and Burdett. He said the plan is to start the plant up later in the week. During the remaining days of September the plant requires a steady inventory to keep it operating.
Llewelyn-Jones said this year’s sugar beet crop didn’t start out so well. A cool, wet spring made for some difficult seeding but producers were able to find some windows of opportunity to get the seed in the ground.
“We had a very good stand.”
Overall he was expecting a similar crop to last year until the heat in July and August hit the region. He said while it was looking like a 20 to 21 tonne crop in June the numbers are now looking like they could be in the 22 to 23 tonne range.
“Depending on how September goes it could be even better.”