Monday was my aunt’s birthday. It is our tradition that we take our first sugar beet samples on that day. It’s a tradition that dates back to the early 70s. We go out to each field, find a spot that looks about average and pull ten feet of beets. The general assumption is that 10 feet of beets, multiplied by 1.1 and multiplied again by the number of weeks left before the start of harvest gives you a fair indication of what your final yield will be.
My personal history shows that all this test does is prove that the sugar beet crop is made in August and September. It also shows if there are any disease issues in the crop. And even if there are issues, there is nothing you can do about it except pray that they recover.
This year our crop is a little all over the board. As our spring went, some of the beets were planted in good conditions, others were planted in muddy conditions. Some fields were planted early, some were planted a little later than we would like.
This is a healthy beet. It has large leaves; as bigger than my glove. Sometimes big leaves don't mean there is a big root underneath. But a big leaf is the factory we need for photosynthesis to take place.
Overall, the field that was planted last and looks the weakest proved to be just that. The beets are small, ten feet only weighed 3 pounds, and showed signs of disease. These beets are healing over. If the disease is active, the beets will be actively have brown spots on them that are oozing juice. What we thought was our best field is now in the middle of the road. In this field, the leaves look tremendous but the roots supporting them aren’t overly large. A field with average foliage is currently the best. Our earliest planted field, and therefore you would think, one of the best, had the most foliage but average beets, and it also had beets showing signs of disease.
This is a beet that has been infected with a disease. It has brown spots that are no longer oozing beet juice. If the field dries out this beet will be fine come harvest.
What this means is we need to stay dry. The fields have ample moisture to produce a good crop. The beets themselves have the infrastructure (big leaves) to convert sunshine into sugar. Beets like heat and sunshine so lets hope and pray that’s what they get.
