BEETS, TOPS&LIVESTOCK Supplement to the Powell Tribune THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2018
Lyle Evelo digs sugar beets on the right while Robert Anderson collects in a field in the Heart Mountain area. Clint Anderson is riding along with his father, Robert. Evelo was wrapping up his early dig Friday and said he was pleased with the yield and sugar content of his beets this early in the season. Tribune photos by Carla Wensky
BUMPER CROP HOLDS PROMISE FOR AREA SUGAR BEET HARVEST
Sugar beets are transferred from the digger to the semi.
GROWERS HOPE FOR BOUNCE-BACK BY DAVE BONNER Tribune Publisher
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directors. Western Sugar operates in a four-state region (Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska and Colorado). Each state has two directors on the co-op board, with an additional director from Colorado. Lyle Bjornestad of Powell is the other board member representing the Lovell Factory District.
an a potentially record 2018 sugar beet crop translate into an improved payday for area growers? There are a lot of people hoping so. This includes growers and their bankers, their communities and the A ONE-TWO PUNCH people who run Western ‘We’ve went The disappointments Sugar Cooperative. that have beset the co-op through lower The early harvest of prices before and and its growers in the re2018 sugar beets began cent past can be reduced on Sept. 4, with company came out of it. to a one-two punch of low and growers buoyed by The problem right selling price of sugar and sampling that indicates production problems at the crop could achieve now is that all the factories, Rodriguez a yield of more than 31 commodities have said. Mother Nature, of tons per acre over the gone through it at course, is always an undistrict’s 15,500 acres. derlying factor. The previous record ton- the same time.’ In January of this year, nage in the Lovell district the issues simmered to Ric Rodriguez was 30.07 tons per acre the surface. Western Western Sugar in 2015. Sugar was forced to deBut despite beet yields lay a scheduled grower hovering close to 30 tons to the acre, payment on the 2017 beet crop. As the “we’ve struggled the last couple of company worked with its bankers, the years,” acknowledged Ric Rodriguez payment was made in March. of Powell. “Our lenders understand we have to Rodriguez is vice chairman of West- make those payments to growers,” Roern Sugar’s nine-member board of driguez emphasized.
WHAT’S INSIDE:
Charlie Monk of Cowley operates a defoliator on Friday ahead of the digger. Western Sugar is still financially strong from an equity position, he said. He insisted the company is leveling with growers about the financial health of the company. “They [growers] know exactly what’s going on. We open the financials to them. They aren’t in the dark. We had a very good growers meeting in March,” he added. The total payment to growers for the 2017 crop will not be final until October of 2018. The Western Sugar Cooperative fiscal year ends on Sept. 30. “The final payment is yet to be determined,” Rodriguez said. He declined to put a figure on grower payments, because the number is proprietary. GETTING GROWER PAYMENTS UP Bjornestad is one who is excited that the Lovell district has a lot of real good looking beets this year. He didn’t start See Beets, Page 3
Donella Pease mans the scale at the Ralston beet dump Friday morning. Friday was the last day for the early dig at the Ralston receiving station and operations will resume when the regular dig begins Oct. 2.
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