Just a few months ago, sugar beet grower James Forrest was stuck in the mud as British Sugar's Bury St Edmunds factory prepared for its annual shutdown.

This season he is looking forward to a much easier campaign - the name given to the beet harvest - which takes place from September through to March or April.

Last season, appalling weather conditions followed Storm Babet in October 2023 and continued through the spring of 2024. There was hardly any let-up in the rain which meant he was unable to harvest his sugar beet in time. James feared he might lose his crop.

Some farmers braved the mud - but risked damaging the soil and getting their equipment stuck as they battled to harvest their beet. Others, like James, who farms at Stonham, near Stowmarket, held tight and waited for conditions to ease up.

It meant losing the window to transport his beet to Bury St Edmunds. But British Sugar - knowing farmers were under pressure - left its Cantley factory open later than usual so that they could get their beet in for processing.

James back in March  (Image: Charlotte Bond)

"We just had to be patient with the weather really - that was the long and short of it," said James. The crop made it to the factory - and didn't turn out too badly in the end either.

"The Bury factory closed and we ended up having to send some of ours to Cantley - so a reasonable chunk of our beet. It was further to haul them but we were greatly relieved to get them all in."

The last of his beet left for the factory on April 12. Now, British Sugar has announced it will be opening its factories up again next month for this year's beet campaign.

Bury St Edmunds and Wissington will open on September 16, Newark on September 23 and Cantley on October 7. 

James is keen to get his beet crop - this year over a smaller area - to the factory as early as he can having sown his crop in April.

"You have got the balance of trying to turn the fields around to get the wheat in," he explained. He will start with his heavy land and move on to the lighter soils later.

"This year's (beet) crop we actually managed to get in the ground sooner than we drilled last year's crop," he said.

"I wasn't in too much of a hurry to drill this year's crop given the experience we had with last year's. We drilled late last year because of the weather and the yields were quite respectable."

This year's beet "looks well", he said. "They have had moisture early in the season. They could do with a drop of rain - if I could choose it just on the sugar beet and the grass and the parsley then I would."

Recent weather has been fine - but rain did start to fall on cue this week. Forecasts suggest the rainy period will continue in Suffolk up to this weekend.

British Sugar’s agriculture director Dan Green wished growers a successful campaign season.

“As we look ahead to this year’s campaign, we look forward to working together with growers, harvesters and hauliers. We’d like to wish everyone across the British beet sugar industry all the best for a safe and successful campaign,” he said.