So far, Northwest Wyoming sugar beet producers are happy with their harvest.
While this week's winter storm had a potential to threaten the crops, Western Sugar Cooperative's Randall Jobman, the north region vice president of agriculture at Western Sugar Cooperative, said thankfully it didn't get cold enough.
"The recent storm event, we had some temperatures dip down into the just sub 30. So 28 to 29 degrees, and that's not enough to affect our crop," he said.
Last year, a hard freeze shut down sugar production and even the beets they salvaged had problems. This resulted with one of the worst growing seasons on record. But Jobman said this year is going really well.
"The beet crop across the whole four state regions of the cooperative has exceeded expectations and we expect on the cooperative level a record crop," said Jobman.
Jobman said producers starting picking beets on September 8 and they'll start getting processed this week. He said this harvest is a relief for farmers in the region who have struggled.
Have a question about this story? Contact the reporter, Kamila Kudelska, at kkudelsk@uwyo.edu.
