Snow and frost damage has brought the sugar beet harvest in Southern Alberta to an end.
Rogers Sugar, which owns the only Canadian sugar beet processing facility located in Taber, AB, made the announcement Thursday, November 7, saying the severe Alberta winter weather forced them to terminate the 2019 harvest.
The company says they came to the decision with Alberta Sugar Beet Growers, concluding the severe snow and frost damage to the beets has resulted in the inability to store or process the unharvested crop.
Alberta Sugar Beet Growers President, Arnie Bergen-Henengouwen, says they managed to get about 55 per cent of the crop off.
He explains the first severe snow storm and cold event hit their fields on September 30, followed by three more blasts of winter weather throughout the month of October.
Bergen-Henengouwen says temperatures dropped to minus 14 degrees at points with wind chills of minus 20, which was just too much for the sugar beet crop to handle.
"When you leave that amount of crop out in the field, it does effect the [farmers'] bottom lines without a doubt," he said, adding this year's difficult harvest also sends a ripple effect through the community.
"There's truckers, and contractors, and employees in the plant that are going to have a short season as well."
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