| In spite of last weeks rains, early harvest started as scheduled on
Monday, Sept. 17, at the Sidney and Fairview receiving stations. Its
muddy, and a little slow, but its suppose to be slow, says Randy
Jones, Holly Sugar agriculturist.
The Sidney factory pile grounds will accept 3,000 tons of beets per day
during early harvest, and Sugar Valley at Fairview will accept 4,200 tons
of beets per day during early harvest to meet factory processing needs.
The factory needs enough beets to keep the plant in operation, but it also
must process quickly all the beets that growers harvest during early
harvest. Well harvest a total of about 70,000 tons of beets to meet
early harvest requirements, Jones remarks.
This year, the Sidney factory yard has switched to an automated
computer system at the scale houses. This system, which Sugar Valley has
had in place for the past two years, will speed up the weighing process at
the factory yard. The Sidney factory yard has changed to a computer
system at the scale houses this year, Jones says. Weve had the
system at Sugar Valley for two years, but we still had a few bugs to work
out of the Sidney factory yard system. Weve got them fixed on Monday,
so the system should work well now for the remainder of harvest.
Growers will see a few other changes at Sugar Valley and at the Sidney
yard. Fairviews Sugar Valley has replaced two smaller pilers with two
larger ones. Crews have moved the two smaller pilers from Fairview to the
Sidney yard, increasing receiving capabilities at the Sidney station. The
Sidney yard now has seven pilers, which will enable growers to operate on
a regular daylight shift rather than operating on two shifts as in
previous years.
Sugar Valley also has increased receiving capabilities, thanks to the
two larger pilers.
Early harvest began about a week later this year than it has in other
years. Growers and Holly Sugar agreed to delay the start of early harvest
this year by a week because of the later-than-normal spring planting. This
extra week in the ground allowed the beets to mature a bit more prior to
harvest.
As well, indications show that this years crop will average slightly
below normal in yield, so growers do not have the extra tonnage in the
ground that would require extra time to harvest.
As growers begin another harvest, Holly officials remind both growers
and the general public to slow down, be safe, exercise patience and act
with caution on the roads and in the fields. Its a busy time of year,
and everyone wants to see a safe, accident free harvest.
Culbertson growers begin early harvest on Sept/ 20, and Savage area
growers begin harvest on Sept. 26. Powder River and Pleasant View will not
participate in early harvest this year, due to time constraints and the
ability of the factory to move trucks from one receiving station to
another and get all the early harvested beets cleaned up. The late start
of early harvest this year will eliminate 45% of early harvested beet
tons.
Full harvest begins on Oct. 1. |