Thumb Area Headlines | Thumbnet.net

Area News Headlines

These news headlines brought to you by these fine sponsors:

Sugarbeet Harvesting Begins Throughout the Thumb

Mary Drier/Mike Kaufman

Thu, 10 Sep 2026 21:32:20 EDT

click on the picture to enlarge

The 2026 sugarbeet crop harvesting is underway.

That means dozens of trucks carrying sugar beets to factories will be on the highway along with farm equipment.

Farmers plant and harvest between 140,000 and 160,000 acres of sugarbeets annually.

Michigan produces about 1.3 billion pounds of pure sugar each year by the Michigan Sugar Company, which is owned by roughly 865 growers who are owners.

Michigan Sugar Company has processing plants in Bay City, Caro, Croswell, and Sebewaing that slice millions of tons of beets during the annual processing campaigns.

All four factories will begin slicing beets on Friday.