Cold, wet weather has slowed the planting of sugar beets, a long-season crop that is expected to benefit from this year’s increased supply of irrigation water.

Grower-owned Amalgamated Sugar, which operates three production plants in southern Idaho, aims to plant about 180,000 acres in Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

Planted acres as of April 14 totaled 13,500 in the Treasure Valley of southwest Idaho and southeast Oregon, 12,200 in the Twin Falls area of south-central Idaho and 6,700 in the Mini-Cassia region to the east, said Brodie Griffin, the Boise-based company’s vice president of agriculture.

“It’s been a slow start to the sugar beet planting season due to an extended winter with snow, rain and colder temperatures,” he said.

Heavy planting was expected over the next 10 days, weather permitting.

Though planting has been delayed, the availability of water “has drastically improved for the entire growing region over the last month,” Griffin said. Recent mountain snow accumulation “should equate to reservoirs filling over the next couple of months as runoff begins. This is great news for our growers.”

Many growers are weeks behind their usual planting schedules, Samantha Parrott, executive director of the Snake River Sugarbeet Growers Association, said April 17. Growers in the Treasure and Magic valleys have begun planting, but eastern Idaho is still too wet.

Blackfoot farmer Doug Evans, association president, said April 18 that a neighbor started planting in lighter soil that day, but most eastern Idaho growers were probably about a week away from being able to plant.

“Our growers are always doing their best to mitigate risk, but sometimes things like weather are out of their control,” Parrott said. “While we are extremely grateful to have the spring moisture, it has made planting very difficult.”

Growers are optimistic about the crop, and despite the planting delay, “I’m confident our growers will deliver an excellent product for our consumers,” she said.

Ben Jantz of southwest Nampa had finished planting by the end of April’s second full week. That’s about three weeks later than normal for his farm.

Crop quality will depend on conditions the rest of the season, and some late-planted crops in the past have performed around the long-term average, he said. Last year’s planting was mostly on-time, but a lack of moisture was a concern at the outset.

Galen Lee, who farms in the New Plymouth, Idaho, area near the Oregon border, started planting April 13 in an “early field,” he said. It is closer to the Snake, with sandier soil instead of a clay-heavy composition that holds water longer.

He was two to three weeks behind his usual schedule, partly because of how wet conditions affected fieldwork timing.

In south-central Idaho, Randy Grant of the Eden-Hazelton area said April 14 that he was “probably 10 days behind what I would consider average here,” and around 35% to 40% completed.

A planting delay of that length is not out of the ordinary in the region, and “other than that, things look good going forward,” he said.

“The ground dries out quickly, so we’re rolling along,” Grant said.