American Crystal Delays Harvest For Most Districts Until Tuesday

Hillsboro, ND — The American Crystal Sugar Beet campaign will get going a little later than initially than originally planned due to heat. According to a harvest update released from American Crystal Sugar, the forecasts for the southern four districts of East Grand Forks, Crookston, Hillsboro, and Moorhead calls for highs in the mid 70s and lows in the 50s, which would only provide limited windows for harvest. American Crystal prefers root temperatures of the crop to be below 55 degrees for harvest. As of now, American Crystal is planning tentatively to start the harvest at Midnight on Tuesday, October 4^th for those southern four districts. Temps at that time should be in the 60s with lows in the 40s. However, because temperatures are currently cooler up north, the Drayton District is still planning on opening their harvest campaign this Saturday at Midnight. There are still some districts conducting “soft starts.”

The target start date for American Crystal each year is October 1^st, but heat, cold, and moisture can impact that. Last year’s campaign did not get underway until Mid-October.