ABSTRACT
In some sugarbeet growing areas, such as the intermountain areas of the United States, successful sugarbeet production means high root yield. In the Red River Valley of Minnesota and North Dakota, growers also have an economic stake in the profitability of sugar processing, since they own the cooperative processing plants that produce sugar in addition to providing raw sugarbeet inputs. Successful sugarbeet production is the result of a combination high sugarbeet yield, high beet sugar content, and low levels of impurities resulting in high recoverable sugar. Undesirable impurities are amino-N content, sodium, and potassium, resulting in increased loss of sugar to molasses. Loss to molasses may be as low as 2 percent or as high as 20 percent of sugar yield. Molasses is about 50 percent sucrose (Hobbis, 1978).
