Sugar beet growers in the Panhandle and southeastern Wyoming should be getting their first checks for this year’s crop from the Western Sugar Cooperative this week. Co-op area ag manager Jerry Darnell says the initial payment checks are to be in the mail Tuesday.

Darnell says the last beets from an exceptional crop came in a little less than 2 weeks ago. The crop averaged over 29 tons of beets per acre…which with an 18% sugar content means that each acre will account for over 10,000-pounds of sugar.

The beet processing campaign is expected to run until late February, and Western Sugar has installed a new ventilation system in its beet piles to try to reduce losses to the cold by keeping the beets as close to the ideal temperatures as possible.

Straw is still spread over the piles as insulation, but Darnell says the ventilation system…used successfully in sugar beet-growing areas of Michigan for several years…should keep the interior of the piles at a steady 37-degrees.