| PAUL -- Beet farmers with acres of vegetables still in the
ground stand to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars because unseasonably
cold weather means growers cannot harvest.
Blaine Cook, a grower and partner with Mainline Ranches in Minidoka,
may forfeit as much as $384,000 in revenue.
"For the ones that still have crops out, it's a serious
thing," he said. "Nobody likes to take that kind of loss."
About two dozen area farmers have beets in the ground.
"Right now, we can't dig," said Blaine Cook. "If this
weather would moderate, we could harvest."
A little more than 4,000 acres of beets cannot be harvested unless
temperatures grow warmer.
Processors, too, are encountering problems. When frost permeates the
ground, soil freezes into clumps that often stick to the beets. Harvesting
equipment selects beets from dirt based on size, so growers are finding
unmanageable amounts of dirt in harvests.
Alan Swenson with Amalgamated Sugar in Paul said truckloads of beets
arriving at the factory are half-filled with dirt. Harvesting equipment
usually handles soil loads of 4 to 10 percent.
Some growers are concerned that the sugar processor may impose fines of
more than $300 per acre if promised beets are not delivered.
But Amalgamated's agricultural manager, John Schorr, said penalties are
leveled only if growers refuse to deliver beets that are on contract. He
said the company will not fine farmers who cannot deliver the vegetables
because of weather.
Yields have been up this year, with an acre producing, on average, 20
to 25 tons of beets. While price depends on factors such as sugar content
and ease of sugar removal, each acre of an average crop is worth close to
$960.
Aaron Brock is a staff writer for the Times-News and can be reached at
735-3400. |