One way to lengthen the period that the factory can process sugarbeets is to have an early harvest period. This expands the sugarbeet processing period by up to one month and increases the overall amount of sugarbeets that can be processed. Early harvest benefits both producers and processing companies by increasing the length of time that the processing plant operates. The lengthened processing time allowed by early harvest increases overall sugar production of the factory, decreases loss to spoilage, and expands sugarbeet acreage needed to meet the added demand. Early harvest usually starts before the optimum time for yield and quality, so it is important to identify practices to increase yield or quality of early harvested sugarbeets.
Acres are contracted for early harvest, so growers can manage early harvested acres accordingly.
Too much N results in high root yields, but causes low sucrose content and high concentrations of impurities, particularly sodium and amino-N. High concentrations of impurities reduce the percentage of extractable sucrose. Too little N results in reduced root yield, although sucrose content and quality are improved. Nitrogen management may be one way to improve sucrose yield and quality of early harvested sugarbeets. The objective of this study was to evaluate the response of sugarbeets to different rates of available N harvested during the early harvest period and main campaign. The study was conducted from 1992 through 1995 at the Eastern Agricultural Research Center in Sidney under furrow flood irrigation using gated pipe.