"We started planting today (Tuesday)," Lyman producer Jon Hort said.

"A half dozen farmers have planted just under 1,000 acres," Holly Sugar's Rick Griffith said. They got started around the 27th of March and the majority of the producers will get started about the 10th of April.

Some Colorado and Wyoming producers began planting two weeks ago.

The numbers of producers who plant in the latter part of March and first week of April, have declined over the past years.

Ten years ago it was common for more producers to start planting around the 20th of March than they do today, Western Sugar's Jerry Darnell said. "More people are getting gun-shy, because you often have to replant because of a late freeze."

"You always worry about a late frost," Hort said. "Last year we got away with it" and he is hoping to do so again this year.