Rain fell during the last week in June, providing sugarbeets with much needed moisture.
Much of the sugarbeet crop regions of North Dakota and Minnesota had not had measurable rainfall during June so the plants were starting to show stress from the lack of moisture and unseasonably warm temperatures.
The rainfall amounts during the last several days of June varied from as much as nearly 8 inches in Pembina County near St. Thomas, North Dakota, to about 0.50 inches in Renville County, Minnesota.
“We got pretty much, in the last week, a general 2 inches, up and down the (Red River) Valley,” said Joe Hastings, American Crystal Sugar Co. general agronomist, on June 26, 2023.
The moisture will give sugarbeet production a boost. The unseasonably warm temperatures pushed crop development and the rows were just beginning to close in late June.
“They were in need of a drink to maintain the potential this crop has,” Hastings said. Some areas were still short of moisture, so timely rains will be needed to maintain the crop potential in some of the fields in the American Crystal Sugar factory district.
Farmers were monitoring their fields for cercospora leaf spot , which flourishes in warm, humid weather conditions, and some of the early-planted crops were being sprayed for the disease.
One location that won’t need rain for awhile is near St. Thomas, North Dakota.
Parts of sugarbeet fields of Nathan Green, who grows the crop for American Crystal Sugar, were under water June 26 after more than 7 inches of rain fell on June 24, 2023.
“It just started and never quit,” Green said. “Some areas have acres of water.”
The deluge filled the legal drains so the water backed up into fields.
Source: agweek.com
Photo Credit: gettyimages-luiscarlosjimenezi
Categories: North Dakota, Crops, Sugar Beets