| TWIN FALLS -- As snow hit on Wednesday, beet harvesting
continued. But according to Del Traveller, assistant to vice-president of
ag at Amalgamated's Twin Falls plant, very few beets remain in the ground.
"We're about 95 or 96 percent done," he said. "Just a
few growers with five-to-600 acres are finishing up. The snow hasn't
really slowed anybody up."
Traveller said those farmers are doubling and tripling up to hurry
through their fields. Some stations are closing up for the season. Last
week, he said, Black Station in the Eden-Hazelton area stayed open all
night.
"Because of the volume of beets coming through, at night the lines
are shorter and they can get more done," he said.
The longer the beets stay in the field, the higher the sugar content.
Traveller said across Magic Valley the content on average is on the plus
side of 17 percent and just a bit shy of last year's record of 17.5
percent. The tonnage, though, is up considerably in Magic Valley,
averaging 30 tons as compared to last year's 24 tons.
Earlier in the year, Twin Falls' ag manager, Leonard Kerbs, predicted
record tons and sugar content because the number of heat units of both
years was almost identical. The only real difference, causing lower
tonnage last year, was a hard June frost leaving some farmers in eastern
Magic Valley with serious damage.
"This is the year the growers who paid attention to his
fertilization program and his nitrogen usage really paid off for
him," said Paul's ag manager, John Schorr. "It was a perfect
growing year. This year provided the perfect example of what could be
accomplished."
Schorr said he knows of farmers who have actually topped 20 percent
sugar content.
In the Nampa, Nyssa and Elwyee districts, tonnage is averaging 32 tons
with about 85 percent of the beets harvested, ag manager Clark Millard
said. The sugar content is averaging around 16.25, he said. |