Nebraska Growers Pleased With Benefits of Strip Till

No sugarbeet-producing state had a higher percentage of its sugarbeet crop under a strip-till production system this past year than Nebraska. Roughly half of the state’s beet acreage was strip tilled this season, says Jerry Darnell, Western Sugar Cooperative’s Scottsbluff-based agronomy manager. That percentage is quite likely to expand in 2010 and beyond, he adds.

Limited Irrigation: Its Effect on Sugar Yield

Beet History Comes Alive

The past came alive this fall for those interested in the rich history of sugarbeet production in western Nebraska and southeastern Wyoming. On the third weekend in September, the Farm and Ranch Museum at Gering, Neb., held its 13th annual Harvest Festival — and beets were the featured crop. About 2,000 people attended the event.

New Cane Sugar Refinery Being Built in Louisiana

Imperial Sugar Company of Sugar Land, Texas, Sugar Growers and Refiners (“SUGAR”), Inc., of Breaux Bridge, La., and Minneapolis-based Cargill, Inc., announced on November 19 the completion of a joint venture agreement that will lead to the construction of a new sugar refinery at Gramercy, La.

Dateline: Washington

Frosty and wet are sought-after elements for your favorite beverage on a hot summer day. But frosty and wet weather patterns during the October harvest only turned excitement into misery for beet growers.

Around The Industry

Michigan/Ontario Research Reporting Session Is Jan. 19 The 2010 Michigan/Ontario Sugarbeet Research ReportingSession is scheduled for January 19 at the Doubletree Hotel/Conference Center in Bay City, Mich. This fourth annual reporting session will encompass all current sugarbeet research being conducted in the Great Lakes region. Registration is required.

Write Field: Sunset

Photographers and painters invest a great deal of time waiting for just the right light. As farmers, we are extremely fortunate to be outside just as that perfect light makes its all- too-brief appearance.

30 Years Ago / Excerpts from the September 1979 Issue

Bergland Announces 13 Cent Support Level for 1979 Crop — “Domestic sugar producers will receive federal price support of 13 cents per pound for 1979-crop raw cane sugar and 15.15 cents per pound for refined beet sugar under interim program regulations announced July 27 by Secretary of Agriculture Bob Bergland. [He] said these loan levels will provide average minimum support prices to farmers of $17 per net ton of average quality sugarcane and $22.46 per net ton of average quality sugarbeets.