The Michigan Ag Today Sugarbeet Planting Report is made possible by Betaseed: where research breeds confidence.
60 percent of Michigan’s sugarbeets have been planted, and 14 percent have emerged. However, some of them will need to be replanted thanks to last week’s cold temperatures.
“The frost/freeze was really quite hard in the beets in this extended cold period,” said Rob Gerstenberger, Betaseed’s Michigan sales representative. “We’re seeing more trouble with the March planted beets—a lot of those have been replanted. We’re scouting beets that were planted right after April, and wen the soil froze, it pinched the hypocotyl on the seedlings and they wilted over.
Gerstenberger said those are areas of concern. He’s been scouting fields and isn’t sure how widespread the damage is.
“What I would do is encourage growers to go out there and take stand counts—dig up those beets, examine the root closely and look for damage on the root,” he said. “It’s field by field too, so it’s a matter of scouting.”
Right now, Gerstenberger said it’s too early to tell if this frost was as bad as the frost event last May.
“The verdict is still out on some of these fields,” he said. “The message is to keep scouting. You may have fantastic-looking beets. It can be one grower has a nice field planted the same day another grower may have to replant. It’s funny how frost damage works across the territory.”
Michigan’s beet-growing region needs some precipitation, but Gerstenberger adds he’s hopeful this year’s crop will be high-yielding this fall.
