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Financing fears rise as sugarbeet profitability narrows

Tight margins could squeeze some sugarbeet growers out of planting all their acres this year.

Kristina McVicker with South Central College in Mankato, Minnesota says she’s hearing of banks leery of financing.

“I have heard rumors where banks have looked into are you better off forfeiting over your shares for this year versus actually farming those sugarbeet acres.”

Many sugarbeet growers in Minnesota are members of a cooperative.

She tells Brownfield most will likely still plant beets this year.

“Because I believe the forfeiture is around $2,000 an acre or so, so in most cases we might still project a loss on those sugarbeets.”

But McVicker says it’s probably not to the point of forfeiting acres.

She made these comments during last week’s KNUJ Farm Forum, an affiliate station of Brownfield in New Ulm, Minnesota.