This past year’s sugar beet harvest in southern Alberta featured plenty of trials and tribulations, but also had some sweet successes.
Celebrating its 100th year, Alberta Sugar Beet Growers were hamstrung with tough negotiations with Rogers Sugar well into May, with a new five-year contract hammered out in Montreal on May 9. Three years are locked in with the last two optional.
WHY IT MATTERS: Sugar beets found in southern Alberta produce the only source of 100 per cent Canadian sugar.
After the contract was finalized, things moved quickly.
“Seed was then approved to be imported into Canada, and a mad rush began to organize the distribution. Amazingly, this was all done in less than a week, and seed distribution began on May 14. Most of the general area planting began on the same day,” said Darren Klemen, who was officially anointed the new president of ASBG at the annual general meeting on March 4.
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“Growers kept their planters running for long hours to get the crop in quick, as the contract negotiation created a long delay in normal planting.”
Nevertheless, producers were able to get 22,968 acres planted into the ground within a handful of days of seed distribution. The late planting did provide a blessing in disguise with great stands.
June saw some timely rains, but with it also came some cooler days stretching a month-and-a-half that the region had not experienced in recent years, causing fears of a below-average beet harvest. But after an on-time harvest that began on Sept. 29, all the piling grounds finished reporting on Oct. 27 with 726,997 tonnes delivered.
Sugar content was 18.89 per cent with 17.32 extractable sugar and a 4.86 per cent tare. It beat the five-year average of 18.46 per cent sugar content. It brought the average yield to 31.68 tonnes per acre, as Stiekema Kolhorn Farms was deemed 2025’s top grower at 37.52 adjusted tonnes per acre.
Very few beets were lost to hail, wind or insects. Also, August came in on a heater for a long stretch of warm, dry weather propping up the crop with irrigation systems making up for lost time. September brought more of the same, with many days over 30 degrees Celsius with requisite irrigation in tow, making its way into harvest October as well.
“I guess that would be considered a pretty good crop. That’s more September irrigating than I’ve observed in a long time,” said Klemen.
Glyphosate-resistant kochia and volunteer canola continued to be a problem in the sugar beet growing areas.
Lantic Inc. field stag monitored fields with small cases of disease and pests which included aphanomyces and root rot. But the southern Alberta area got off relatively well disease-wise compared to their American counterparts.
“Our disease concerns are now very minor compared to our neighbors to the south. Nearly all their areas (were) devastated by cercospora,” said Klemen.
As the ASBG celebrated its 100th harvest as an organization, growers at its AGM got to enjoy a video showcasing its century history. Watch here.
