BAY CITY, Mich., (WPBN/WGTU) -- The Michigan Sugar Company is predicting a record year for the beet harvest.
According to officials, the record yield for the 2021 sugarbeet crop could be 34 tons of per acre, up from the previous record 31.64 tons per acre set in 2015.
Early harvesting of sugarbeets began on August 16, 2021, and to date about 25% of the crop has been dug from the roughly 162,000 acres planted this year by the company’s nearly 900 grower-owners.
“This is always a very exciting time of year for us and there is great anticipation about the potential of this crop,” said Michigan Sugar Company Executive Vice President Jim Ruhlman. “Once again, our world-class growers have done a phenomenal job caring for their sugarbeets and, with a little help from Mother Nature, we will now reap the benefits.”
Ruhlman said Michigan Sugar Company's grower-owners harvest about 4,6 million tons of sugarbeets during a typical year.
Records show this year could end up around 5.4 million tons.
Due to the expected size of the crop, Michigan Sugar Company’s Board of Directors voted last week to authorize possibly asking growers to leave up to 5% of their acres unharvested. A final determination about that will be made around Nov. 1.
To date, more than 1.3 million tons of sugarbeets have been delivered for processing at Michigan Sugar Company’s four factories.