Weather is playing havoc on Amalgamated Sugar Company beet plantings this spring.
Already the company has had to replant 8,600 acres, and based on Tuesday and Wednesday’s weather forecast, which predicts more cold temperatures and wind, the figure could go higher.
Most of the beets were hit by frost on the morning of May 1. Temperatures plummeted to the high teens and lower 20s in eastern Idaho and into the high 20s in the Twin Falls area.
Already a great percentage of the company’s beets are late being planted by seven to 10 days because of a lack of irrigation water. Reservoirs will not fill this spring, causing growers to elect to take late rather than early water.
Leonard Kerbs, Twin Falls District ag manager, said the company allowed growers a 2 percent overplant option this year because of the late planting and what could turn out to be a partial late crop with the replants.
Last year the company had to replant over 13,000 acres in one of its worst springs so this year’s total is not unusual. However, Kerbs and other ag managers are hoping this week’s cold weather predictions won’t make matters worse.