Associated Press - November 10, 2009 2:15 PM ET

POWELL, Wyo. (AP) - Many sugar beet fields in northern Wyoming sustained more severe damage from an early frost than previously thought.

Western Sugar Cooperative officials and members of the Big Horn Basin Beet Growers Association came up with the gloomy assessment after touring fields across the Lovell factory district late last week.

The early October freeze occurred just as farmers began to harvest what was expected to be a record sugar beet crop. Even after the freeze, there was hope that some of the damaged beets might recover enough to where they could still be processed into sugar.

But many of the beets remaining in the ground are so badly damaged that the co-op decided to stop harvesting for now.

Information from: Powell Tribune - Powell, http://www.powelltribune.com

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