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A sweet heap for reapers
Farmers hope beet harvest will top 20.2 ton per acre record set in '87

By Bryce Hoffman, The Saginaw News
October 4, 2000
 
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."