Jeff Schweitzer, spokesman for the Moorhead-based cooperative, says the crop is 97 percent processed. Completion dates for the factories include: Hillsboro, N.D., May 10; East Grand Forks, May 12; Drayton, N.D., May 15; and Crookston and Moorhead factories, May 15.

Crystal in mid-April increased its projection for payments on the 2000 crop to $32.50 per ton per average gross beet payments -- up $1 per ton. That projection is still lower than the $37.31 per ton paid for the 1999 crop. Payments for the 1999 crop started at about $34 a ton, but crept upwards through the year until the final payment estimate was made at the end of the fiscal year in August 2000.

As for the current crop, Schweitzer said planting stood at only 5 percent complete as of Tuesday. "Ideally we'd like to see sugar beets planted by the third week in April," Schweitzer said.

After this past weekend's rains, many farmers in the region won't be in the field for another week.

In other developments, Crystal has internally announced reductions in capital expenditures. The board has budgeted $21 million for capital expenditures for the current, 2001 fiscal year, which ends Aug. 31. That's half of the $42 million spent in fiscal year 2000." The capital expenditures for subsequent years are expected to stay in the $17 million to $20 million," Schweitzer said. "A lot of that will be for necessary replacement."

Capital expenditures in previous years were $57 million in 1999, $99 million in 1998 and $70 million in 1997 all part of an aggressive expansion programs.

Prior to that expansion, Crystal's annual capital expenditures ranged from $40 million to $45 million from 1992 to 1996. He said the company will likely make no significant increase in capital expenditures before the sugar industry rebounds.