| ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) - The round, creased face of Jim
Ross furrowed at the memory. A sugar beet farmer in the Red River Valley
of the U.S. Northern Plains whose nearest town would be Grand Forks, North
Dakota, the 50-year old Ross recalled the day his computer crashed last
December.
``I learned a lesson the hard way -- backup, backup, backup (files),''
he told Reuters during a break at the annual Sweetener Colloquium at
Disney's Yacht and Beach Club hotel in Orlando.
He got his first computer about five years ago, a small one without a
lot of memory. It was a novelty back then.
And now, Ross can't live without them.
``We're totally dependent on computers,'' he said, adding he has no
doubts that online networks in sugar will be used increasingly in the
future. ``That's the direction we have to go.''
Ross, who is also a director of American Crystal Sugar Co., farms about
2,800 acres with his brother. He said they use the computer and the
Internet to buy chemicals, watch the sugar markets, and organize a
topographical map of their farm.
``We're using satellite imagery to look at our crops,'' he said.
Sugar Trade Warming Up To Worldwide Web
Frank Jenkins, president of Sugarnetwork.com
the Jenkins Sugar Group, said that online sugar trading is not a novelty
and should not be treated as such.
``It's simply the best way to disseminate information inexpensively and
efficiently,'' he told Reuters during a break in the conference while he
explained his system to prospective clients outside the meeting hall of
the Sweetener meeting here. ''I don't think it's anything special at
all.''
Sugarnetwork.com contains live streaming price and option quotes,
technical analysis, freight reports and analyst commentary for Brazil,
Mexico and the United States.
There's software too, like SUGAR CADDY which, according to its
brochure, is a purchasing program for the sugar buyer that contains
prices, freight rates, types of sugar and packaging, and transport methods
for the sweetener.
Jenkins said the Internet is ideal for sugar millers everywhere,
especially those in remote locations in Latin America who need on-time
information.
``As long as you have a phone line, you can have access to the best
information. It makes a lot more sense than hard wiring every place you go
(to),'' he said.
Ross Says Computer Crash Erases Vital Data
The dependence on computer technology was driven home harshly for Ross,
who also sows hard red spring wheat, by the crash that took out his
system.
``I lost a year's worth of wheat yield maps. That's an irreplaceable
loss. There's no way to get back and recover that,'' he said.
Right now, Ross has four computers -- two laptops and two desk tops --
which run a yield program and help growers like him market his sugar
beets. Ross is a member of the American Crystal Sugar Co., a cooperative
which industry sources said markets and sells more than two dozen
different types of sugar from nearly 3,000 growers working over 500,000
acres in the area.
It also owns five different factories in the northern U.S. plains. For
Ross, farming is almost unimaginable without a computer and the access to
the Internet. ``Without it, we would be handcuffed,'' he said |