By Claire LaCanne and Dean Malvick
During the June 17 Strategic Farming: Field Notes webinar, Extension specialists Tom Peters and Dean Malvick discussed updates in sugar beet and disease management, moderated by Anthony Hanson, Extension Educator - Integrated Pest Management. The session highlighted updates and challenges for sugar beet management, including pest management and the onset of disease pressure.
Overview of sugar beets in Minnesota
We grow about 1,100,000 acres of sugar beets in the United States. All of our sugar beets are processed into sugar that is part of our diets. In Minnesota and North Dakota, we grow about 635,000 acres of sugar beets, which represents about 60%
of the acreage that is in the United States. Sugar beets are usually grown in a rotation that includes grass and broadleaf crops, with sugar beets following a grass crop about once in every four years. In the southern areas, sugar beets are usually after corn, and in the north, after spring wheat.
Beet development is coming along, and the crop is looking especially excellent in central Minnesota around Kandiyohi, Renville, and Meeker counties. Fields have closed rows in those areas, which is about two weeks ahead of schedule as we tend to see row closure closer to the 4th of July. This is a good indicator of a strong crop in that area. Other more northern locations are certainly more variable due to cooler conditions, but also wind events that affected sugar bee growth and development. Some areas even had to replant due to those wind events.
Source : umn.edu