| The curtain rose this morning on another sugar beet season at Monitor
Sugar Co., but the weather took top billing.
Rain and mud have made it difficult for farmers to get into their
fields to harvest beets, so the normal flood of trucks to the plant at
2600 S. Euclid Ave. was reduced to a trickle.
"It's exciting to get started, but there aren't very many trucks
around this morning," said John Stephen of Midland, who hauls beets
for his cousin, Vern Stephen of Tittabawassee Township.
"I remember a couple of years ago, there were hundreds of trucks
lined up."
At daybreak today there were no more than a dozen or so trucks waiting
to drop off beets at Monitor Sugar as the company began its annual
campaign.
"It's just been too muddy in the fields," said Richard
Kaczmarek of Pinconning, who hauls beets for Kevin Wackerle of Pinconning.
"We couldn't even take the truck into the field. We had to load the
beets into carts and then drive the carts out of the field to empty the
beets into the truck."
Trucks typically hold about 25 tons of sugar beets.
As a result of the weather-dampened campaign opener, many of the
hundreds of seasonal employees were told not to report to work until
Thursday.
But the slow start isn't dampening the spirits of Monitor Sugar
executives.
"I'll record this as a poor start, but it's not the end of the
world," said Paul Pfenninger, vice president of agriculture at
Monitor Sugar. "The beet crop looks very, very good compared to the
other crops, and I think we will have a better than average crop as far as
tonnage goes."
Pfenninger said an average yield is 17.5 tons per acre. He predicts
this year's average yield to be between 18 and 19 tons per acre.
"The rain this month is slowing down the start of our season, but
the beets really needed the water," Pfenninger said, noting that the
beet piling grounds at Monitor Sugar have received 4.56 inches of rain in
September.
The slow start at Monitor Sugar means it may be a few more days before
motorists begin to see large numbers of sugar beet trucks on area roads.
Pfenninger said drivers should use extra caution when sharing the roads
with sugar beet trucks, especially around the construction areas on
Interstate 75 and along Center Avenue.
"Drivers should be aware that we're on the road," said
Gingrich. "You can't just pull out in front of us and expect us to
stop. Every year, someone gets hurt because they are not careful."
Pfenninger said the first day of the sugar beet season is mostly
symbolic.
"The goal is to reach peak production, which is 8,000 tons per
day, by the end of the first week. In terms of processing, we always start
out slow, so the lack of trucks today really doesn't affect us all that
much," he said.
"We want to have 50,000 to 60,000 tons on hand right away, and if
we have to work through the weekend to get it, then we will." |