First there was the poor sugar price, then farmers were concerned about getting their operating loans approved. Next it was the likely drought and the resulting power buyback. And then Mother Nature played her hand.

Last year the sugar beet crop got off to a great start, this year has been mixed, said Del Traveller of the Amalgamated Sugar Company.

"We've had everything from the ridiculous to the sublime," he told fieldmen at the biweekly Twin Falls County fieldmen's luncheon on Wednesday. Some beet fields were blown out for the second time last weekend.

About 7 percent of the company's total acres were not planted this season because of the voluntary irrigation load reduction program offered by Idaho Power. That works out to 15,000 to 17,000 acres -- about the same acreage as was enrolled in the federal government's PIK program last fall. But the impact won't be the same because the crop is so different, thanks to Mother Nature.

Traveller said the company stayed out of negotiations between farmers as beet acres were redistributed across southern Idaho, except for requiring that the transactions be freight-revenue neutral. The growers involved in moving beet acres must pay the freight difference so that is not an additional cost for the company.

"There are about as many deals as there are farmers," he added.

But despite all the chaos that has surrounded getting the 2001 beet crop in the ground, there is room for cautious optimism, Traveler said. Early estimates indicate that American growers planted about 10 percent fewer sugar beet acres this season. And what acreage has been planted is being buffeted by Mother Nature.

"This looks like a year when production is not going to be great," he added.

Those factors combined to move sugar prices up by 15 cents a pound in the last week.

"There's room for a little optimism, I think it's bottomed out," Traveller said. But "it's not going to turn around as fast as it fell off."

Weeds are on the agenda for the next fieldmen's lunch is scheduled for June 13 at 11:30 a.m. at the Jade Buffet on Kimberly Road in Twin Falls.