Farmers’ concerns grow over sugar beet planting

WAHPETON, N.D. (KVRR) – Hundreds of sugar beets are planted in the Red River Valley each year by this time.

So far none are in the ground in eastern North Dakota. With wet conditions dominating the region, farmers are seeing fewer opportunities to start planting beets.

Growers are worried about what they will look like if they start late as diseases could ruin the state of the crop. A beet farmer says farmers set a statistical deadline to start planting beets by May 12th or it could be too late.

“Your weeds, your diseases, everything kind of comes around at the same time. It’s very beneficial to have that crop in early so they’re a little more mature. They’re gonna go into that stage a lot younger than they normally are, so these impacts that we can normally roll through potentially could be a lot more of a stress and a serious problem for the crop,” Vice President of Agriculture at Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative Mike Metzger said.

Metzger adds farmers will lose about $120 per acre for every week beyond the May 12th deadline if beets aren’t planted by then.