Too sweet or too much? Farmers weight in on wet sugar beet season

Dresden, Ont. -

Record rainfall has led to record yields for sugar beets farmers in Chatham-Kent according to local producer Leon Leclair.

Wednesday marked the last day of custom sugar beet harvesting for Leclair who tackled 900 acres since Aug. 15.

“It’s wrapping up and it’s a great, great, great feeling,” Leclair said.

Leclair tells CTV News Chatham-Kent is the top producer of sugar beets in Canada.

“Usually we peg 29 ton to the acre. They’re projecting 36-37 ton across the board and that’s under 170 thousand acres,” Leclair said. “Ontario’s crop will be around 40 ton.”

Leclair has harvested sugar beets in the region for 45 years, saying excessive rain throughout this year’s growing season completely destroyed some fields, while leaving others with too much to handle, forcing some of the crop to be left behind.

“Factory just can’t process it because it will spoil in the spring,” explains Leclair. “Mother Nature takes and Mother Nature gives and we can’t control that part.”

Leclair says Ontario beets are shipped across the border to Michigan where they’re processed by Michigan Sugar.

The last few dry days have allowed farmers a reprieve from regular rainfall to continue their harvest according to Leclair.

“I’ve had issues harvesting getting stuck in the mud.” Leclair notes, “It’s been really, really tiresome. The light is at the end of the tunnel, but I want to reiterate it’s been a good year.”