Sugarbeet Feature Stories

About 350 growers, spouses and affiliated industry personnel gathered in Long Beach, Calif., on February 1-3 for the American Sugarbeet Growers Association’s 2015 annual meeting. While there was a slowdown still in effect at the nearby ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, it was “full speed ahead” for the ASGA agenda.

On these pages, we provide photos and message highlights of several invited speaker presentations, as well as a summary of Wyoming grower and ASGA President John Snyder’s closing remarks (page 11).

The 2016 ASGA annual meeting is scheduled for February 7-9 in Scottsdale, Ariz. 

Serving with Snyder on the ASGA Executive Committee is Vice President Galen Lee of Idaho. Current chairmen and vice chairmen, respectively, of other ASGA committees are as follows:

• Finance — Mark Olson (Minnesota), Treasurer, and Don Steinbeisser, Jr. (Montana)
  
• Legislative — John Brainard (Minnesota) and Randall Grant (Idaho)
  
• Bylaws — Kendall Busch (Nebraska) and Chuck Steiner (Minnesota)
  
• International Affairs — Galen Lee (Idaho) and Dan Younggren (Minnesota)
  
• Meetings — Charlie Bauer (Michigan) and Butch Layaye (California)
  
• Political Action — Paul Rutherford (Minnesota) and LaMar Isaak (Idaho)
  
• Public Relations — Ervin Schlemmer (Montana) and Dennis Klosterman (North Dakota)
  
• Biotech Research — Rick Gerstenberger (Michigan) and Paul Schlagel (Colorado)

One word stood out during John Snyder’s presidential address prior to the close of the 2015 American Sugarbeet Growers Association annual meeting: Action. 

“Annual meetings are a time of reflection and planning,” the Wyoming grower and ASGA president noted. “How do we see ourselves, and how do others perceive us? What is our reputation? What is our mission?

“After reflecting on those questions, it boils down to one word: ‘ACTION.’ Without action, nothing gets done. But as farmers, ‘ACTION’ best describes who we are. We get lots of things done, both individually and collectively. The world needs us.” Here’s how Snyder broke down this word from his ASGA perspective, letter by letter:

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Tom Peters is by no means a clone of Michael J. Fox (aka Marty McFly). But he does have a “Back to the Future” focus right now that he hopes will be bought into by increasing numbers of Upper Midwest sugarbeet growers.

Peters, Fargo-based extension agronomist-sugarbeet and weed science for North Dakota State University and the University of Minnesota, is hoping to bolster weed control in sugarbeets by taking a system-wide approach to the issue. In other words, he believes that in these days of increasing resistance to glyphosate and certain other herbicides, producers can take a big step toward satisfactory weed control in their beet fields by reviewing and modifying their weed management programs in other rotational crops, such as corn, soybeans and small grains.


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A production practices survey of Michigan growers attending recent winter meetings sheds new light on how the state’s sugarbeet producers are adopting research-based recommendations. At five educational meetings held in February, sponsored cooperatively by the Michigan Sugarbeet Research Education Advisory Council (REACh), Michigan Sugar Company and MSU Sugarbeet Advancement, attending growers were asked to respond to a series of questions. Nearly 200 growers provided input. Combined, their 2014 beet acreage was 54,200, which represents about one-third of last season’s entire Michigan sugarbeet acreage.

The first set of questions pertained to the use of Quadris® fungicide for control of Rhizoctonia. Of the 198 growers responding, 94% indicated they use Quadris for control of this disease — a very high percentage compared to other U.S. beet growing areas, points out Steve Poindexter, senior sugarbeet extension educator for Michigan StateUniversity.

Read our entire issue and back issues. Click here.

A University of Minnesota study has further documented the long-term impact of a single application of spent lime. In January, Ashok Chanda and Jason Brantner* of the University of Minnesota’s Northwest Research and Outreach Center at Crookston reported on what they found 10 years after a single application of spent lime on a field near Breckenridge, Minn. Specifically, they measured effects on (1) soil pH, (2) Aphanomyces root rot and (3) sugarbeet yield and quality a decade after treatment.

In Spring 2004, as part of research on spent lime’s contribution toward managing Aphanomyces in sugarbeets, now-retired U of M plant pathologist Carol Windels and former NDSU plant pathologist Carl Bradley (currently at the University of Illinois) established a trial in that Wilkin County field north of Breckenridge. The field has very high levels of Aphanomyces, with a soil index value of 98 (100 being the highest possible level). The field’s pH registered at 6.3. Spent lime treatments — each replicated four times — went on at rates of zero, five, 10, 15 and 20 wet-weight tons per acre (zero, 2.7, 5.3, 8.0 and 10.6 dry-weight basis). Spring wheat was planted that year to allow the lime treatments to stabilize. Since then, sugarbeets have been grown in one experiment each year (2005 through 2014) in rotation with wheat, corn and soybean.


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On several occasions back in the summer of 2011, Jason Meyers left his farm near Grandview, Idaho, and drove about 400 miles west to central Oregon. His destination was Redmond, home of Newhouse Manufacturing Copany.

There, Newhouse was building a sugarbeet top saver conceptualized by Meyers. The western Idaho producer envisioned supplying some of his area’s dairies with beet tops for their feed rations, thus generating additional value from his beet crop. And that’s exactly what has transpired for the past four years.

“We can get anywhere from 15 to 22 tons of tops per acre,” Meyers says, given beet yields typically running 40 tons/acre or higher. As of the summer of 2014, local dairies were paying him around $20 a (wet) ton for the tops. “That’s loaded in a bin, and they come and get it. If I’m trucking it to a nearby dairy, it’s $25.”

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The 46th annual survey of weed control and production practices among sugarbeet growers in Minnesota and eastern North Dakota received responses from 188 growers — up slightly from the 183 who responded to the prior year’s survey questionnaire Growers in that region planted about 642,900 acres of beets in 2014, with the responding growers representing 105,950 acres, or 16% of total planted acres.

Of the acres reported upon, 99% were planted to Roundup Ready® sugarbeet varieties, with the remaining 1% to conventional. Those numbers were identical to the 2013 survey. Total beet acreage treated with herbicides (taking into account multiple applications) was 236% — very similar to 2013’s 232%. (By comparison, the corresponding numbers for 2006 and 2007 — the two years just prior to the introduction of Roundup Ready (RR) beets — were 386% and 383%, respectively.)


Read our entire issue and back issues. Click here.

Sugarbeets comprise just a small percentage of Paul Rasgorshek’s overall crop acreage — 175 acres out of a total of 5,200. But that in no way diminishes the value he places upon this crop. “Beets are very important — and profitable — for our operation. Beets have always been profitable for us,” he affirms. That, plus his strong focus on rotational diversification, affirms sugarbeets will remain on this Treasure Valley farm for plenty of years to come.

Rasgorshek grew up west of Nampa, Idaho, where his now-retired father, Joe, raised beets. Paul started farming on his own nearby in 1982. Then, in 2004, he made the decision to pick up and move his operation to the less-populated Squaw Creek Canyon area several miles southwest of Nampa, near the Snake River.


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