SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. (AP) - Western Sugar Cooperative officials say the co-op must dispose of 10,000 tons of rotten sugar beets and has offered them free to livestock feeders.
The co-op’s Jerry Darnell told television station KDUH (https://bit.ly/1BuAPVP ) that the problem cropped up at its Scottsbluff plant in November, when temperatures dropped from 40 degrees to minus 20. Piles of beets outside froze, trapping warm air inside that led to the rotting.
Darnell says the co-op wants “to process everything we buy and make it into refined white sugar. This year Mother Nature has not cooperated, and it’s throwing us a curveball.”
He says the loss will affect growers, because there are fewer beets to process into sugar and, thus, less sugar to sell.
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Information from: KDUH-TV, https://www.kotanow.com
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