Sugarbeet Feature Stories

Upper Midwest Sugarbeet Fixtures Larry Smith (left) & Allan Cattanach (right) Reflect Upon Their Lengthy Careers

Allan Cattanach grew up on a central Wisconsin hog and dairy farm. Larry Smith’s father was a John Deere dealer in east central Minnesota. Having spent their formative years far away from sugarbeet country, neither could have imagined that their respective careers would end up being constructed around this crop. But that’s exactly what transpired — and now, after nearly four decades as two of the most recognizable names and faces in the Upper Midwest sugarbeet community, both men are transitioning toward retirement.

Smith, who joined the staff of the University of Minnesota’s Northwest Experiment Station at Crookston in 1971, fully retires from the university in May. Cattanach, who became American Crystal Sugar Company’s general agronomist in 1998 following more than two decades as University of Minnesota/ North Dakota State University extension sugarbeet specialist, is “on a phased retirement plan.” He expects a more-defined timetable to be worked out by this coming summer in consultation with his Crystal employers.

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The 45th annual survey of weed control and production practices among sugarbeet growers in Minnesota and eastern North Dakota benefited from an uptick in participation compared to 2012. A total of 183 growers responded to the 2013 survey request, compared to 114 the prior year. Overall, growers planted just over 676,000 acres of sugarbeets in the Minnesota/ eastern North Dakota region in 2013. The 183 survey respondents represent 18% — or 121,063 — of total acres planted. 

Of the acres reported upon, 99% were planted to Roundup Ready® sugarbeet varieties. Total beet acreage treated with herbicides in 2013 (taking into account multiple applicatons) was 232%. While that level was slightly higher than 2012’s 208%, it was lower than most of the past several years. In 2007, for instance, the last year prior to the introduction of commercial Roundup Ready beets in the region, herbicide treatments stood at 383%.

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Multi-generational tradition and strength lives on in many family operations around the U.S. sugarbeet community — including the Wambekes of Deaver, Wyo.

Paul Wambeke, a third-generation beet grower and current board member of the Big Horn Basin Beet Growers Association, was kind enough to send The Sugarbeet Grower these photos from the Wambeke 2013 harvest.

The above photo, taken on the last day of a wet harvest, shows the Pryor Mountains of southern Montana/northern Wyoming in the background.

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Again, though, he quickly came to view himself as a fortunate man. “I’m a ‘T12’ paraplegic,” he explains, meaning he had been paralyzed from the waist down. “That’s about as ‘low’ (in terms of severity) as they had there. Everybody else at Craig was from T12 on up to quadriplegic, to head injuries. So one look around, and I felt I had nothing to complain about.”

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