About 1,000 acres of southern Alberta's sugar beet crop has been lost to the excessive rainfall since spring.
Andrew Llewelyn-Jones of Taber, agricultural superintendent for Lantic Sugar, said one complete field was drowned out, and low spots in many other fields have been lost for the year.
He said some of those areas were reseeded to other crops like barley, but others were inside sugar beet fields and left bare.
Farmers planted about 31,000 acres of beets in the spring.
Lack of hot weather continues to hinder plant development, he said. Normally, the sugar beet leaves form a canopy that covers the bare ground between rows by July 1. Some fields are getting close to row closure, but others are still 10 days to two weeks from that growth stage.
Lewelyn-Jones anticipates yields this year won't be as good as anticipated in the spring. Growth will be dictated by weather in July, August and September.
He said hot weather last September allowed beets to add considerable weight. The long-term yield for sugar beets is 23 tonnes an acre.
"There is still the possibility of getting there, but it will depend on the weather."
The continuing wet, cold weather has hit southern Alberta's dry bean industry hard.
Owen Cleland, who works out of the Taber Viterra bean division plant, said up to 9,000 acres of the almost 48,000 acres planted by farmers has been lost to weather conditions.
Cleland said the earliest-seeded beans have come through the persistent rains and cold weather best. and later-seeded fields are struggling, mostly because of the lack of any consistent hot weather.
"I think you could count the number of 30-degree days on one hand."
But it was the massive rain that caused so much flooding in the region east of Lethbridge that, "Really put a nail in the coffin of many crops."
The rain tally ranged from 90 to 125 millimetres. Cleland said that even if the weather had warmed up between the numerous rains from the start of planting, the crop would have been in much better shape. Instead, the crop continued to fall behind.
With hot days and warm nights and no frost through September, farmers might have an opportunity to pull off an average crop. He expects crop-management changes to foster improved prospects. Farmers could adjust the inputs destined for the crop to save money, and some may choose to restrict irrigation water to attempt to force crop maturity quicker, choosing to take lower yields in favour of harvesting a mature crop. While farmers could be looking at reduced yields, crop insurance could boost returns, he said.
The company, which operates processing plants east of Taber and in Bow Island, is hoping for enough beans to keep the plants operating and to cover costs. But Cleland anticipates there could be some staff cuts similar to two years ago.
“A lot of other crops have been hit hard by the weather, but dry beans have been hardest hit," he said.