Beets galore
Annual sugar beet campaign kicks off
By Larry Meyer
Argus Observer
Wednesday, October 22, 2008 10:13 AM PDT
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| Having only been open one day more than a week, the Luse beet dump has a large pile built up and was being added to Tuesday afternoon. |
NAMPA — The 2008 sugar beet harvest is well underway in the lower Treasure Valley, and an Amalgamated Sugar Company official predicts an average crop because of cold weather — which produced poor stands never able to recover despite good summer temperatures — early in the growing season.
“We’re getting off to a good start,” Clark Mallard, Amalgamated Sugar Company agriculture manager, said. Mallard oversees the firm's Nyssa and Nampa growing districts. He expressed hope the good weather will continue through the end of the harvest.
Mallard estimated the sugar content is at average or a little below average as the campaign gets underway but added it is too early to say where it will end up as the Nampa factory has only been processing for about a week.
He said the sugars could improve as the harvest moves along.
Harvest in the valley started Oct. 13, which was followed by the factory startup in Nampa three days later.
“We had a difficult spring,” Mallard said. “Stands were not as good as (they should be).”
He estimated the yield would be about average, as colder temperatures hampered growth of sugar beets last spring.
A good summer could not make up for the poor start and spotty stands, he said. A wet spring also delayed the planting of beets and also ended up being an average crop.
There were 25,000 acres of sugar beets grown in the Nyssa-Nampa District this year, which is a lot less than last year, Mallard said. “It’s way down across the company.” he said, because of competition from other crops. “The price of alternative crops was good. Wheat was the biggest competitor.”
However, prices for those other commodities are “starting to weaken,” Mallard said, while sugar prices are strengthening, so the company believes the acreage will come back.
“We’re optimistic it will improve next year,” Mallard said.
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