| Holly Sugar staff in Torrington are starting to make
preparations for the upcoming year. According to Rick Griffith, ag manager
of the Torrington facility, agriculturists hope to start contracting sugar
beet acres for 2001 in mid-December.
Griffith said they hope to increase contracted acres from the 33,000
acres that were contracted in 2000. Holly contracts sugar beets in areas
throughout the Wyoming communities around Torrington, Wheatland and Albin;
as well as Nebraska cities such as Alliance, Bayard, Gering, Scottsbluff
and Kimball; and Carpenter and Hereford in Colorado.
Griffith said they also plan to begin scheduling production meetings
for growers in mid-December.
Processing of beets from the 2000 harvest is going extremely well,
Griffith said. "We are expecting a minimal pile loss because the
beets are storing so well. That is a benefit to both the grower and the
processor."
Griffith said the campaign is expected to finish up after the first of
the year.
Kent Wimmer, director of agriculture for Western Sugar, said processing
is also going well at the six Western Sugar factories. Wimmer anticipates
the 2000 campaign to finish at the end of January in Nebraska and Colorado
and by the third week of February in Wyoming and Montana.
He said 4,600 acres of sugar beets still need to be harvested in
Colorado and Nebraska. Wimmer said the majority of those beets - 2,600
acres - are in the Holyoke area. Wimmer added an additional 700 acres are
left in Nebraska in the Bayard and Scottsbluff areas, and 1,300-1,400
acres are left in the Fort Morgan area.
Wimmer said he doesn't know if the weather will allow for the beets to
be harvested.
"If the growers are able to harvest them, we will have to look at
the beets to see what kind of condition they are in," Wimmer
explained. "They will have to be processed instantly if they are
processable."
The ground will have to thaw so the beets don't have hard clumps of
dirt stuck to them, which will plug up machines during processing. |