When Holly Sugar built the Sidney factory in 1925, many area farmers had no idea how to grow a good sugar beet crop. For this reason, Holly Sugar and the state of Montana hired Jim Brennan, a state representative, to recruit beet growers from Colorado. Brennan succeeded in convincing many Colorado beet growers to move to the Sidney area, including the George Cayko family.

John Cayko, a son of George, still works in the sugar beet fields to this day. John, 14 years old when the family moved to the Fairview area in 1929, had seen some rough years in Colorado prior to the move to Fairview. "Our beets were hailed every year we spent in Colorado," Cayko recalls. "The crop was never worth much. If growers got a 12-ton to the acre harvest, they were lucky. People were selling out all over beet country in Colorado, so Brennan came to every auction sale to try to convince growers to move to the Sidney area."

John's father came to Sidney in 1928 on an exploratory trip. He evaluated the soil, irrigation facilities and the general growing conditions. Satisfied with what he found, he moved his family to a farm northeast of Fairview in 1929. "Most of those who came from Colorado stopped at the Savage area, or else moved north of Sidney," Cayko says. "A lot of the soil around Sidney had gravel too close to the surface for good beet crops."

In January of 1930, young John drove a truck carrying the family household possessions from Colorado to the farm near Fairview. The family shipped the machinery and livestock by rail. An older brother traveled on the cattle cars to tend the livestock.

The Cayko family found a lot of problems in their new home. For starters, the fields were not leveled. With no drainage ditches, growers irrigated constantly in short rows. "My job was irrigating," Cayko says. "I couldn't let water pile up on the end and drown the plants. Irrigation was a continuous, never ending project in the early years."

Also, farmers in the area previously had not plowed the land more than six inches deep. The Caykos brought their deep plowing technique with them from Colorado, and routinely plowed their land 12 inches deep.

The Caykos used horses and tractor power throughout the '30s and early '40s. They prepared the ground by plowing with a tractor, but they used horses for everything else. Horses drew the four-row planter. The family hoed beets, and the children thinned out the stands. Early growers planted a thick stand of beets, then thinned out the plants so beets were 12 to 18 inches apart. "This made for some huge beets," Cayko recalls. "We didn't know then that big beets don't have as much sugar content as the smaller beets."

"The factory was learning, too," Cayko adds. "Factory officials urged us to keep 12 inches between beets. We've all done a lot of learning over the years."

Beet seed came in 100-pound burlap sacks. "This was raw seed, and those bags stood five feet tall," Cayko says. "We'd take out the seed, then split the sack and that was what I used for my irrigation canvas."

Once the burlap became wet and muddy, it became increasingly difficult to handle. Cayko recalls carrying wet, muddy canvas, a shovel and a 2x4 on his bike, traveling from field to field to irrigate.

Generally, with the tractor and horse power available in the '30s and early '40s, growers couldn't handle much more than a 40-acre field of beets in any one year. "We had seven people to work the farm; our parents and five kids, and 40 acres of beets was a lot," Cayko acknowledges. "We put in long hours, seven days a week. We also had milk cows, pigs and chickens to look after."

Cayko worked long, hard and often cold hours during beet harvest, which began on Oct. 1 and could last anywhere from four to eight weeks, depending on weather conditions. The Caykos used a one-row horse drawn beet puller. After the puller had loosened the beets from the soil, workers lifted the beets by hand, smacking them together to loosen and remove dirt. Someone would drive a horse drawn V implement along a stretch of ground to smooth and level the soil, then workers would top beets by hand and pile them on the leveled land. Drivers drove their horse drawn wagons along the smoothed ground, then loaded the beets into the wagons with beet forks. A beet wagon held approximately four tons of beets, all loaded by hand.

Drivers then drove the loaded wagons to the nearest beet dump. "There were a lot of beet dumps in the early years, and always beside the railroad," Cayko states. "The dumps had to be by the railroad, because rail was the only way to get the beets in to the factory."

If a rail car stood waiting at the beet dump, horses hauled the four-ton wagon up a steep ramp overlooking the rail car. The driver unloaded the wagon at the top of the ramp, allowing beets to tumble down a steep meshed incline into the waiting rail car. The slide towards the rail car dislodged more dirt and mud from the beets, which fell through the mesh onto the ground beneath the loading ramp.

If no rail cars stood waiting, drivers unloaded their wagons by fork onto large beet piles. "We worked from sunup to sundown," Cayko says. "We'd have five or six loads a day. We all got tired, including the horses."

After harvest, individuals bid for the opportunity to spend the winter loading the piled beets into waiting rail cars for transport to the factory. "People would reload those piled beets onto carts, drive the carts up the ramp and unload the beets into the rail cars," Cayko explains. "This work lasted most of the winter."

With the coming of the war, growers had problems finding enough help for beet harvest. The U.S. government brought German prisoners of war to the Sidney area, who helped get the beets harvested. "I can remember guards bringing the prisoners to the fields every day so they could harvest beets," Cayko says.

It wasn't until the end of the war, in 1945, that the Cayko farm got electricity.

As the Cayko boys married, father, George, bought them each a farm. Each family had their own farm, but they shared equipment and farmed together as a unit throughout the '50s.

The '50s saw increased mechanization and increased beet acreage, but the individual Cayko families continued to share equipment until 1959. That year, one of the worst in area sugar beet history, 40% of the area beets froze in the ground. Cayko's brother got his beets out of the ground in time, but Cayko himself did not get one beet harvested. "That's about the time we thought maybe we all ought to have our own equipment," Cayko recalls.

During the '60s, everyone still owned livestock. Growers saved their beet tops, put a fence around the harvested beet field, and imported lambs to eat the tops. "There were lambs all up and down the valley," Cayko says.

Cayko, through experimentation, decided that if he eliminated the lambs and instead prepared his land in the fall, he got better crops. He plowed the beet tops back into the soil, which improved the fields and had his land ready for early planting in the spring. He also began to ridge in the fall. This conserved moisture and cut wind erosion.

"We quit feeding lambs, we built up the soil with green manure, we started ridging for soil and water conservation. Ridging also helps control some disease problems," Cayko explains.

This process led Cayko to try planting to stand, a new concept in the area at the time.

With increased mechanization and improved seed, hand labor played less of a role in growing sugar beets than it had in the earlier years. Planting to stand eliminated even more hand labor. Cayko was one of the first growers in the area to eliminate hand thinning by pioneering planting to stand in the area. "Beets used to be planted thickly, then hand labor would thin the beets," Cayko advises. "We decided to plant to stand, like they did in the Red River Valley, and see how it worked for us."

In planting to stand, Cayko planted their seed six inches apart. Sugar content increased, as did tonnage. As well, Cayko saved in labor expenses, he had no thinning costs and he used one-third the seed he normally used for planting the old way. "It saved us money, and it improved the quality of our beets," Cayko says. "Planting to stand was one of the best things we ever did. It eliminated so many problems."

Cayko has continued to experiment with new ideas on his farm and has made many changes, large and small, over the years. "You've got to be willing to change with the times and to try new things," he advises. "I never told my boys not to change; I always said we'd give a new idea a try."

Some of the ideas Cayko and his sons have experimented with include band spraying, using skinny tires on tractors to minimize the compacted ground between rows, and disking and ripping land rather than plowing.

Cayko says of the thin tractor tires, "Fat tires squish the ridges and beets don't do as well. We use 12-inch tires which really have made a difference for us."

Of the ripping and disking, Cayko comments, "This method leaves humus on top of the ground. The seed doesn't have trouble emerging, as our ground doesn't crust."

Cayko still helps out on the farm, especially at harvest. He defoliated beets until '97. In the years since then, as soon as a field has been harvested, he prepares it for the following spring. "Fall work is so important," he stresses.

Because of his willingness to change with the times, to try new ideas and to constantly experiment with the little things as well as the larger things, Cayko has proved to be one of the true pioneer beet growers. He and his sons have been named in the Holly Top Ten Growers four out of the last seven years, winning number one spot in '95 and '99. Caykos are members of the 20-20 Club (20 tons per acre average and 20% sugar), and Cayko has had 30-ton crops in the past. "Never say something can't be done," he advises. "Give new ideas a chance, and experiment with your farm to discover what works best for you."