BAY CITY, Mich. — Michigan Sugar Co., a sugar beet cooperative located south of Michigan’s Thumb area, may ask its members not to harvest some of their sugar beets because of an unusually large crop.

"We may have some acres that we’ll ask growers not to harvest," said Ray Van Driessche, a spokesman for Michigan Sugar.

The deal the cooperative is talking about would pay growers that don’t harvest some of their crop the usual amount per unharvested acre just as if it had been harvested, minus $5 a ton. Van Driessche said since it costs something to harvest and transport the crop, growers wouldn’t really be losing much profit.

"It’s a great problem when you have so many beets that you don’t know if you can get them all processed," he added.

And that’s the problem. After they are harvested, sugar beets are stored in large piles for several months until they can be turned into sugar. Van Driessche said it’s impossible to know how much of a problem too many beets will pose, because it depends on what kind of spring occurs the following year.

A big problem year is if there is an early warm-up, followed by several freezes, he stated. Once that occurs, it’s much more likely that piles of unprocessed sugar beets will rot and be unusable. Even if such a scenario doesn’t happen, sugar beets that are processed early make the best sugar.

"Beets that are not harvested by the end of March are just not as good as beets that are processed sooner," he said.

In an article published Oct. 24 online by Mlive Media Group, sugar beet grower Mike Schmidt is quoted as saying he’s not planning to set aside acreage to go unharvested, due to his proximity to a Michigan Sugar Co. plant.

"We’re opting not to get involved in it, but hopefully there are people that will," the Kawkawlin Township farmer said. "The farther away the haul, the more it costs to bring the beets to the plant, so, hopefully, that’s where they pick up all the acres."

He said farmers in the Thumb area, Canada and Lansing area would be among the furthest away.

According to the latest crop weather report from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), sugar beet growers in Michigan had harvested 52 percent of their crop as of Oct. 26, compared with the five-year average of 41 percent. According to Van Driessche, as of last Thursday, 75 percent of the crop had been harvested.

The NASS report noted 85 percent of the sugar beet crop this year is in either good or excellent condition, with only 3 percent rated as poor or very poor.

Michigan Sugar Co. has about 900 member-growers who produce sugar beets on more than 160,000 acres of land. They are located in the Thumb area and south, west and north of the Thumb area as well as in Dover Centre, Ontario, Canada. The co-op has plants in Bay City, Caro, Croswell and Sebewaing and three warehouses in Michigan and Ohio. The co-op produces sugar under the Pioneer and Big Chief labels.