| Mid-Michigan farmers are hoping to "beet" a 1987
record with this year's sugar beet harvest.
Michigan Sugar Co. growers began hauling beets to piling stations and
processing plants Monday. Growers for Bay City-based Monitor Sugar Co.
started Sept. 26.
"We expect to harvest over 110,000 acres," said Mitchell A.
Reno, manager of communications for Saginaw Township-based Michigan Sugar.
"We're targeting probably about 20 tons per acre."
The yield record set in 1987 is 20.2 tons per acre, which Michigan
Sugar farmers might surpass this year, Reno said.
"We've got a really good crop of beets, probably better than last
year," said Richard E. Leach, executive vice president of the Great
Lakes Sugar Beet Growers Association.
A 20-year low in sugar prices caused by surging imports and domestic
overproduction, however, has made the harvest bittersweet.
"Let's be thankful that we have a good harvest at a time when we
have low prices," said Wayne Hecht, 50, who grows 240 acres of sugar
beets near Richville in Tuscola County.
"If we had a poor harvest, we'd really have a serious
problem."
Reno said the Michigan Sugar plant in Carrollton will process more than
350,000 tons of the company's 2.2 million-ton crop this year.
Monitor Sugar will process about 1.2 million tons of sugar at its Bay
City plant, said Paul Pfenninger, vice president of agriculture.
Leach said the harvest should last until at least early November, and
that drivers should exercise caution around beet haulers.
"There will be more truck traffic," he said.
"For a few short weeks, we'll just have to let these guys have a
little extra room and drive safely." |