American Crystal Sugar Company reported the frost on the morning of May 24 resulted in the need to replant 61,000 acres.
Dave Berg, vice president of agriculture, said temperatures dipped to a low of 22 degrees for six-to-eight hours that morning for the kill.
“We had a light winter so we thought we’d be early. Some planted in mid-April but it never warmed up. Field conditions for planting were good but we didn’t get germination. Temperatures were 20-25 degrees F below normal most of the month of May,” Berg stated.
He say the area did finally get showers, got some emergence and those early beets were the ones taken out by the frost. Most were in the Drayton-Crookston areas on the northern end of the district.
“We think it will cost us some tons. We have authorized a 5 percent overplant to catch up because we know we’ll be short of normal next fall.”
Berg said the company contracted 498,570 acres, and the frost kill represented 12-13 percent of the crop.
The company’s last real significant replant was in 1998 for wind blowouts. Berg says in his 15 years with the company he has never seen a freeze like this