00:00and welcome back to acuweather early thanks for watching on this thursday morning now it's time
00:09for the agriculture advantage sugar beets are the source of more than half of america's sugar supply
00:22in today's acuweather agricultural advantage we're taking a look at this essential crop growing
00:28across the northern plains joining us is sugar beets specialist what a title at north dakota state
00:35university and the university of minnesota extension eric branch thanks so much for being
00:39with us this morning yeah thanks for having me happy to be here great we're happy to talk about
00:44some sugar beets about 60 percent of u.s sugar now comes from beets not cane what's the difference
00:52between these two sugar crop sources yeah at the simplest level sugar is sugar uh you know it's
00:59the same same sucrose whether it's from cane or beet sugar uh really you know as a consumer we would
01:05never be able to tell the difference um but what is really unique these crops are situated in different
01:10geographical regions um and they're they're really developed for for each region specifically right
01:17whether it's in the southeast where sugar cane is grown or or where i am in the in the upper northern
01:22midwest where sugar beets are grown and of course they can handle the cold weather and the shorter
01:26growing season and things like that so so these crops are are really uh really weather driven i might
01:31say right you know growing where they grow best and where where that advantage can be i have to ask you
01:36a question here up you know i we talk a lot about the corn uh product and how they're developing more
01:43more seeds that are drought resistant are we seeing those kind of advantages as well for sugar beets
01:51yeah you know the the sugar beet breeders are are hard working and and really working to develop
01:58uh varieties and and improve the genetics for these these crops so they can uh produce you know the more
02:04or uh the same or better sugar content uh despite challenges like drought and disease and uh the
02:11weather fluctuations and and things like that well we're seeing some video on our screen of it looks
02:17like the sugar beets can you describe how how big the sugar beet crop is and where do we find that
02:23sugar i'm sorry and where do we find that beet sugar in our everyday foods yeah so so nationally
02:29across the u.s there are about 1.1 million acres of sugar beets grown each year so so compared to
02:34corn and soybeans it's a very very small small crop in that regard um here in north dakota and
02:40minnesota where i'm located we have about 600 000 620 000 acres of sugar beets uh past couple years so
02:48really uh it's a huge part of our landscape in in in eastern north dakota western minnesota and um and
02:54has a big impact for for the economies here and how is in the grocery store sugar uh you know this is the
03:00same sugar that's uh sold wholesale to food manufacturers food food producers uh as as a sugar
03:06ingredient and also uh we can buy beet sugar directly um right off the shelf and how is this
03:14sugar beet harvest going and what kind of weather challenges have growers been dealing with uh as far
03:21as there's too much rain too much cold too early cold how has the weather impacted it yeah when i when
03:27i talked to my stakeholders sugar beet growers here here in the region variable has been my word right
03:32parts of the region had way too much rain i think as much as 33 inches since may 1st um which is way
03:40hugely i'm a way more than usual uh rain wise and and that's been a challenge uh throughout the year
03:45um and now as as sugar beets are getting harvested right right in our region um we want some dry weather
03:51some some conditions that allow the equipment to get into the fields and and get the beets out
03:55uh and of course when we have rain i have we're having some rain this week actually and and
04:00kind of does slow things down so so rain is a big difference we have plant diseases that that are
04:05affected by the rain more rain more disease more crop loss just just a a tougher situation in some
04:11places this year and really quickly we're talking with our um uh uh river expert alex cesnowski about
04:17the low water levels on the mississippi does a lot of the crop get transported uh down the mississippi
04:25the other parts of the country uh you know in terms of of what happens uh after the beet gets
04:32the factory you know there's there and after that processing and the marking set i i can't speak to
04:36that uh you know sugar is beets are trucked out of the factory and then uh loaded by by rail car of
04:42course uh from the factories to to uh the the wholesaler distribution hubs so um you know we're part of
04:49that same ecosystem for for crop transportation and and transporting these commodities across country too
04:54excellent answer to a tough question eric brand sugar beet specialist at north dakota state university
05:00and the university of minnesota extension we have learned so much about sugar beets uh thank you so
05:05much for joining us on accurate early thank you
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