Sugar beet harvest is on track with past years with 44 percent of the crop harvested after the first week of full sugar beet harvest.

Western Sugar Cooperative Area Ag Manager Jerry Darnell tells KNEB Radio in Scottsbluff that growers are harvesting a high quality crop with a sugar average of 17.63%.

Since the hard freeze Darnell says the crop has come in at 18 percent sugar. Darnell says that shows the freeze locked in both the crop’s sugar content and tonnage.

With the high sugar content, Darnell says the three sugar factories in Scottsbluff, Torrington, Wyoming and Fort Morgan Colorado are running at capacity.

Western Sugar’s harvest in the north region is 78 percent complete while Colorado’s harvest is 42 percent complete.