Sweet Outlook for Sugarbeets

Friday Sep 4th, 2009 11 Views Idaho Ag Today

Based on conditions as of August 1, great news for Idaho’s sugar beat industry. Sugarbeet production is expected to total 5.56 million tons from 163,000 harvested acres. Last year wasn’t great given that it was the lowest production on record since 1985. Fortunately, this year is turning out to be a lot better. The National Agricultural Statistics Service reports that the industry will be up 54% over last year given that the sugarbeet yield is 34.1 tons per acre vagainst 31.2 tons last year.

Here’s Mark Duffin, Executive Director of the Idaho Sugarbeet Growers Association: “Sugarbeet production in Idaho is back up closer to traditional levels, we were way down last year due to mostly competition from other crops, but this year production is back up closer to the normal levels. We had a tough spring, getting the crop in and up with all the moisture and storms coming through, but it seems to be progressing pretty good nowhere in Idaho and kind of similar across the nation.”