| FARGO, N.D. -- Letters finally are on the way to the
region's sugar beet growers, notifying them their bids were accepted in
the payment-in-kind program.
Under the PIK program, farmers ultimately receive payment to destroy
healthy beets or cane that otherwise will add to market-depressing
government stockpiles.
Neil Juhnke, director of ag strategy development for American Crystal
Sugar Co., says U.S. Department of Agriculture sources have told him that
notification letters were been mailed from Kansas City, Mo., Oct. 11 -- at
least a week later than expected.
"Successful bidders should receive their confirmation letter"
Oct. 13 or 15, Juhnke says.
Jim Jost, a program specialist with the Farm Service Agency state
office in Fargo, N.D., could not verify the schedule. Anybody who hasn't
received a letter by the Oct. 15 mail can contact local county offices on
the status of their bids, Juhnke says. This affects only those who
submitted bids below 87.9931 percent, the cutoff.
"Anybody whose bid was above that should already have dug their
beets, harvested," Juhnke says.
Most PIK bidders have preselected which acres to destroy, but Jost says
once letters are received, farmers should go to their county FSA offices
for verification. County offices are awaiting separate instructions from
Washington on which bids to approve, Jost says.
American Crystal isn't advising farmers how to destroy acres, Juhnke
says. Most will either disk or chisel them down, Jost says.
About 80 percent of American Crystal's beets were harvested as of Oct.
12. Rain Oct. 8 and 9 shut down Crystal's harvest temporarily. Some still
were too wet to run Oct. 12.
Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative in Wahpeton, N.D., was 90 percent
harvested as of Oct. 12.
"All the stations are open, I don't know whether all the growers
are going yet," says Tom Knudsen, vice president of agriculture.
Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative in Renville at midweek pegged
its harvest progress at about 35 percent, or one third done.
As for the PIK signup, Juhnke says he hasn't been given an explanation
about why it took eight working days to mail the notification letters,
once the cutoff had been selected.
"Comments I'd heard regarded the fact that the state and the
counties had not been involved in the evaluating of the bids" this
time, Juhnke says. "It's been done at the national level and they've
had a lot of work to do."
Similarly, Jost could offer no explanation. The wait has caused "a
lot of stress" for growers, Juhnke acknowledges.
"We had shareholders who finished harvesting last week even, and
have watched beets sit in the field through some inclement weather, not
knowing for sure that their bid would be accepted" for the PIK
program.
Most of Crystal's bids per individual were between 17 and 24 acres per
individual. Some farms involving several individual growers have as many
as 60 to 70 acres in the bids. |