Sugar beets that can't be beat
Researchers sweeten their approach to improving quality

By Lindsay Brown

Sugar beets have made a comeback in Ontario, rebounding from no acreage forty years ago to around 10,000 acres today. But the beets' quality going to market has been hindered because they can be challenging to store, resulting in lower sugar recovery and increased processing costs.

During the winter of 2004/05, about 17 per cent of the Ontario crop was lost due to rotted beets in storage, says John Zandstra, a horticulturist at the University of Guelph's Ridgetown Campus. Sugar beets are harvested in the fall and stored in outdoor piles so that processing can occur throughout the winter. To help improve the final quality of sugar beets, he and Ridgetown professor Laura Van Eerd are studying factors such as growing conditions, crop maintenance, harvesting procedures and storing conditions and varieties.

"Improving the quality of sugar beet storage will allow the industry to be more profitable and will help diversify the agricultural economy," says Zandstra.

The study is being carried out at grower sites across Ontario and at the Michigan Sugar Company's piling station in Dover Centre, Ont. The research team is tracking factors from seed to processing that affect sugar beet quality.

Things they're looking at include the effect that varying nitrogen rates applied in the field have on sugar beet storage quality, and differences in storage characteristics among beet varieties.

Zandstra is also studying harvesting and piling techniques to assess the incidence of scrapes and bruises, which make sugar beets susceptible to rot and sugar loss when stored. He's using an impact recording device, a small round sphere similar in shape, size and weight to the average sugar beet. The device passes through harvesters and piling equipment like a sugar beet would. Impact data are collected, stored and later uploaded to a computer for analysis.

This technique allows Zandstra to identify areas in the harvesting and piling machinery where the beet will experience bruising and damage. He'll use this knowledge to make recommendations to help growers improve their practices.

The researchers will also monitor beet quality at the storage pile, where beets from multiple growers are dumped together into bulk piles up to six metres tall, 50 to 60 metres wide and 300 metres long. The beets are stored in these piles until they're exported to Michigan for processing. Samples will be taken from these piles throughout the storage period to monitor how sugar quality, weight and rot vary.

Zandstra says the researchers hope their findings will ultimately give growers more techniques to improve the quality of their product, reduce losses and boost their returns.

Funding for this research came from several sources, including contributions by Canada and the Province of Ontario under the Canada-Ontario Research and Development (CORD) Program, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through the Advancing Canadian Agriculture and Agri-food Program (with joint funding coming from the Agricultural Adaptation Council in Ontario and the Agriculture and Food Program Council of Alberta), the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and the Ontario Sugar Beet Growers Association. In-kind contributions were made by the Michigan Sugar Company, Agri-Food Laboratories and A+L Laboratories Inc.

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John Zandstra, 519-674-1627, jzandstr@ridgetownc.uoguelph.ca

Lindsay Brown is a writer with SPARK (Students Promoting Awareness of Research Knowledge), a student research writing program at the University of Guelph. Visit www.sparkguelph.ca.