Sweet forecast for sugar beets

POWELL (WNE) — Area growers are well into the harvest of the 2025 sugar beet crop, expected to yield results similar to a year ago. 

By the numbers, that would be a very good outcome. 

Sampling done in July and early August in the Lovell factory district of Western Sugar Cooperative teased at numbers in record territory. 

Ric Rodriguez, Heart Mountain grower and a member of the four-state cooperative’s board of directors, isn’t going overboard in his predictions, but he was upbeat just the same. 

“Lovell growers should have a very good crop,” he said, reflected by the sampling. But then he added the caveat that’s always out there: “If we don’t have any weather events or an early freeze.” 

So what did the sampling numbers show? Estimates project a Lovell district-wide average yield of 29.01 tons of beets per acre, with sugar content of 19.05%. If the sugar content comes in that high in 2025, it would be the second highest on record. 

Last year the Lovell factory district crop posted the highest sugar content in history at 19.21%. The 2024 yield averaged 29.21 tons per acre. 

The other critical number is the purity, which projects how much sugar can be processed out of the beets. A year ago it was one of the highest purity years at 86.65%. 

The Sept. 2 start to the beet harvest in the Lovell district is about a week earlier than usual.