Michigan Sugar Company in early April wrapped up its 2019-20 sugarbeet slicing campaign at its factories in Bay City, Caro, Croswell and Sebewaing, Mich.
Over the course of the campaign, Michigan Sugar sliced 4,108,522 tons of sugarbeets and produced more than 1 billion pounds of sugar. Additionally, the company produced more than 158,000 tons of molasses and 122,000 tons of dry pulp products, both of which are sold as livestock feed.
“This campaign was challenging in that we got a late start last fall due to Mother Nature throwing our grower-owners some very difficult conditions in which to work,” says Michigan Sugar Company executive vice president Jim Ruhlman. “Our growers did an amazing job getting our sugarbeets out of the ground and delivering them for processing.”
Ruhlman says the late start resulted in the campaign running a few weeks later than normal. The Croswell factory finished slicing beets on April 5; Bay City and Sebewaing finished April 8; and Caro finished April 9.
“Our employees in the factory and in packaging and warehousing did an amazing job in the home stretch of this year’s campaign, which took place during the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Ruhlman. “As a critical infrastructure industry, we had a responsibility to continue producing, packaging and shipping sugar into the marketplace. Our employees remained focused on the task at hand and, as they always do, really shined.”
The last truckload of beets for the 2019-20 campaign is taken to the Michigan Sugar factory in Caro, Mich.
Following is a breakdown of sugarbeet slicing production at each factory:
Factory Tons Sliced Sugar (pounds) Molasses Dry Pulp Products
Bay City 1,600,400 405.66 million 57,541 tons 65,377 tons
Caro 715,057 191.65 million 29,882 tons 38,273 tons
Croswell 790,154 201.26 million 34,219 tons 8,052 tons
Sebewaing 1,002,911 228.36 million 36,367 tons 10,922 tons
TOTALS 4,108,522 1.026 billion 158,009 tons 122,624 tons
After all sugarbeets were sliced, the Bay City, Croswell and Sebewaing factories continued to produce sugar from juice and extract stored during the campaign. Croswell has completed its juice run, and the Bay City and Sebewaing factories will continue producing sugar into May. From juice and extract, Michigan Sugar Company expects to produce an additional 80 million pounds of sugar.
Looking ahead, Michigan Sugar Company has several significant projects planned during inter-campaign—the time between the end of one sugarbeet slicing campaign and the beginning of another.
In Croswell, work already is underway on a $13 million capital investment project to improve beet receiving, washing and chip recovery, says Michigan Sugar Company vice president of operations Jason Lowry.
The project expands and optimizes the receiving and wash station of the factory by adding dry handling and replacing a large, tub-style beet washer with a process that sends beets over a high-pressure rollerspray table designed to use less water and energy, create fewer beet chips and produce a cleaner beet for slicing in the factory. It is part of the company’s multi-year, $65 million capital upgrade project at the Croswell factory aimed at increasing slicing capacity by 50 percent.
The last beets of the 2019-20 campaign await processing at the Michigan Sugar Company factory in Bay City, Mich., on April 8.
Elsewhere, projects in Caro include replacing two carbon dioxide gas blowers from the 1940s and upgrading the control system servers. In Sebewaing, a new vacuum system will be installed in the pellet mill for dust control and cleaning purposes, and a new control room is planned. In Bay City, the lime kiln will be sandblasted, cleaned and repainted.
“Inter-campaign is always a busy time of the year in our factories as we prepare for another sugarbeet slicing campaign,” says Lowry.
Meanwhile, Michigan Sugar Company’s grower-owners returned to their fields in March and have been busy planting this year’s crop. To date, about 149,000 acres have been planted, with total planting expected to exceed 162,000 acres.