| Planting for local Holly Sugar beet growers is about 30
percent complete, according to Rick Griffith, agricultural
manager at Holly Sugar Corp.
He said the planting operation has been delayed because of
the wet weather the area has experienced through April from
cold temperatures, rain and snow. Local Western Sugar growers
have about 35 percent of beets planted.
Were behind from the cool and wet weather weve
had, agreed Western Sugars senior agriculturalist Jerry
Darnell. But were in better shape than in the last
couple years because we do have the moisture to bring the
beets up.
Western has about 1,100 acres contracted in Goshen County,
about the same as theyve had in the last two years, Darnell
said.
Holly has sugar beet contracts totaling just under 21,000
acres in the factory growing area.
We expect the growers to be able to get back in the
fields and start planting in the next day or two after if
starts drying, Griffith said. With this latest round (of
wet weather), our soil moisture is excellent. The ground
temperatures are increasing, and we fully expect rapid
emergence of the crop once it is planted.
Griffith said some of the earlier planted beets have
already emerged and look to have some very good stands.
It doesnt appear that there will be crusting, he
said. Generally, with the wet snow in particular, it has a
tendency to mellow the top of the soil, which prevents hard
crusting.
Griffith does not foresee a weed problem because weed
control was applied prior to the snow.
The moisture will activate the chemical, which actually
makes it work better, he said.
Another benefit of the recent moisture is the additional
water level to the reservoir system.
We did receive this heavy wet snow in our watershed,
which ought to help fill our reservoirs and improve the
irrigation storage water this summer, Griffith said. |