Michigan Sugar Co. Expects 3.7M Ton Beet Harvest

The sweetest time of the year for Michigan's beet farmers begins Monday, the start of this year's beet harvest for the Michigan Sugar Co.

"The crop looks very good," Paul Pfenninger, the company's vice president of agriculture, told The Bay City Times for an article published Sept. 7. "We are very pleased with the pre-harvest results."

Pfenninger estimated this year's harvest will be 3.7 million tons, second only to last year's record of 4.1 million tons. The projection is based on samples taken from 290 fields.

The company predicts an average yield of 25.5 tons per acre, down from 26 tons per acre last year. About 146,000 acres will be harvested for the sugar producer.

Trucks will deliver beets from nearly 1,100 farms in 25 counties for the company's plants in Caro, Croswell, Sebawaing and Bay County's Monitor Township, where it is based. Slicing will begin Tuesday and run through February.

Growers earn a premium for the early deliveries of beets that begin Monday, rather than waiting for the beets to grow larger in a few weeks.

Gene Meylan owns G and E Meylan Farms in Bay County's Kawkawlin Township, about 100 miles north-northwest of Detroit. He expects to harvest about 400 acres of beets this year, despite the wet spring and cold summer.

"Things are looking much better than they did two months ago," Meylan said, with moderate temperatures and fewer violent storms boding well for the harvest.

"The conditions are just ideal," he said. "I'm pretty excited about it."

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.