Industry Leaders Testify Before Senate, House Ag Committees -- “Calling the nation’s sugar program effective at promoting price stability while operating at no cost to taxpayers, U.S. sugar producers urged Congress to renew the program when it and other farm programs expire at the end of the year. . . . Excerpts from the testimony delivered to Congress by representatives of the domestic sugar industry highlight some of the issues over which there has been controversy . . . .

“Raw Sugar Prices Lower, More Stable: ‘The price of sugar has actually averaged less during the three years the program has been in operation than it averaged for the two years just prior to its enactment. The program also has resulted in stable sugar prices. . . .’ / Gerald Shannon, President, Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative

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Effective Control of Weeds Essential to Control Beet Production Costs — “Because weeds like kochia and pigweed are prolific seed-producing factories, effective weed control was never more important, particularly when you put a pencil to the rising costs of hand labor.

“ ‘We know that good sequential herbicide treatments cost about $35 to $40 an acre to apply,’ explains Ed Schweizer, USDA weed control specialist, Colorado State University, ‘whereas hoeing, if you have a heavy weed infestation, may cost $60 to $100 an acre.’

“His research shows that it takes only 2 to 6 weeds per 100 feet of beet row to reduce yields. ‘We also know where a grower uses sequential herbicide treatments, his rows could have more than 6 weeds per 100 feet without suffering serious yield loss because weed growth is suppressed and less competitive,’ he points out. . . .

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Congressman Jerry Huckaby Headlines Program — “Headlining the speaking program at the International Sugarbeet Growers Institute in Crookston [Minn.] on Thursday, March 21, will be Congressman Jerry Huckaby (D-LA), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Cotton, Rice and Sugar of the Committee on Agriculture.” (See Huckaby photo below.)

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Emergency Funds for Rhizomania -- “The Agricultural Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture has allocated $75,000 of emergency funds for basic research into the fungus-virus disease rhizomania in California.

“Rhizomania was first noted in California in 1983, and the incidences of rhizomania showed increases in some areas of the state in 1984. Industry sources estimate that in 1983, 2,600 acres were infected, with the disease spreading to 6,200 acres in 1984.

“The Europeans have had the disease since the mid 1950s; however, they have been unable to develop a control. USDA Salinas Station researchers indicate that, in time, it appears that tolerance or resistance may be bred into commercial varieties. This is a number of years away, and a portion of the USDA funding will be used to develop methods to assay soils in commercial labs to determine if the disease is in fields to be planted.

“The greater part of the funding will be used to ‘study the pathogenesis of the disease inducing entities.’ This will lead to a better understanding of how the disease is transmitted and moves through the plant, causing the stunting and bearding of the root system.”


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50 Years on Front Lines of Agriculture Give Horace Godfrey Right to Dean’s Title / By James Hughes – “Fifty years on the front lines of agriculture give Horace D. Godfrey an edge on Capitol Hill in Washington, where he is known as the dean of sugar lobbyists.

“Horace has been involved in farm programs almost from their inception. He was barely 19, a farm boy from a large North Carolina family, when he went to work in the Raleigh office of USDA in 1934. By the time he left the Department 34 years later, he had worked his way up to national administrator of ASCS and executive vice president of the Commodity Credit Corporation.

“Since then, he has carried the banner of the Florida and Texas sugarcane growers in Washington. He is a principal architect of the current sugar program, and probably its leading advocate. It could not have a better friend. 

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The Difference Is in Payment — “Shooting for average sugarbeet yields that are high in recoverable sugar or for over-fertilized high tonnage yields may make a difference of $136 per acre. And figuring over 300,000 acres of sugarbeets in the Red River Valley, that adds up to something like $40 million growers are paying for letting nitrate problems get ahead of them.

“Not only is less sugar produced from beets lifted from high nitrate fields, but more tons of beets must go through the plant. Processing costs the same regardless of the amount of sugar recovered. And plants are limited to a given capacity, so low-sugar beets cost both the company and the producer.

“ ‘If you want to get the most recoverable sugar, nitrogen management is the key,’ says John Moraghan, soil scientist
at North Dakota State University.

“Last year he studied commercial fields in Walsh County where some good growers capable of raising high yields had been raising low quality beets, low in sugar and high in sodium. Even when taking into consideration such variables as varieties, management, stands, Cercospora and planting dates, he found that nitrate dominated everything.

“ ‘Nitrates came through like a beacon. We have to look for fields that are dark green in late fall. That’s the giveaway as far as the quality problem is concerned. We have to manage rotations and fertilizer so that at the end of the season, fields will be showing yellow,’ Moraghan advises.” 

Count Adult Flies Before Applying Insecticides -- “If you’re a Red River Valley sugarbeet grower who has been routinely applying insecticides to control sugarbeet root maggot, you may have been spending money needlessly.

“About the only grower who should routinely apply sugarbeet maggot control insecticides is the grower who has had a long-term maggot problem, says Andy Anderson, North Dakota State University entomologist. Just because a neighbor down the road a couple miles has a problem is no reason to apply maggot control insecticides.

“Anderson is in the process of developing a monitoring program to check the insect population, then determine the point at which he can correlate adult insect numbers with damage. Based on that information, he can make a recommendation to treat or not in June rather than a grower assuming he routinely has to apply maggot control insecticides in April or early May.”

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Hunts Ordered to Pay Growers — “A federal judge in Denver has ordered the Hunt brothers of Dallas and three companies they control to pay sugarbeet growers $31.2 million for denying them a share of profits made in the commodities market in the 1970s. The order and judgment issued by U.S. District Court Judge Zita L. Weinshienk also sets up a procedure to distribute the money to beet growers in several states and a trust to pay them back.

“The judgment, which includes $11.8 million in actual damages, $13.5 million in punitive damages and $5.9 million in interest, came against the Hunts, the Great Western Sugar Co., and Great Western United Corp. and Western Investment Co. “It stemmed from a January 1982 jury verdict in favor of growers in Colorado and other states who raised beets for the Hunts’ Great Western Sugar Co. in 1974. The class-action lawsuit claimed that the Hunts improperly withheld payments owned growers from profits earned by the Hunts in commodity futures trading.”

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Shannon Heads Co-op — “Gerald Shannon was elected president of the Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative at a recent board meeting. 

“Shannon has been general manager of the co-op since its inception in 1973, and the change in job title results from a by-law change approved by the co-op in December.
“In other business, former Minn-Dak president Earl Davison, Tintah, Minn., was elected chairman of the board; James Link, Wahpeton, vice chairman; Lawrence Deal, Doran, Minn., secretary; and Alvin Hansen, Baker, Minn., treasurer.”


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American Crystal Experimenting With Air Bubbles to Protect Beets from Vagaries of Weather — “Two 40-foot high, air-supported polyester tubes have been set up just east of the sugarbeet piles at American Crystal Sugar’s [Moorhead, Minn.] processing plant to see if beets can be protected from wind, rain and changes in temperature by the covering.

“ ‘It’s an experiment to see if such coverings are economically feasible, whether they’ll do the job,’ said Stewart Bass, vice president of Crystal’s agriculture division.

“Bass says the experimental project involves three beet piles of about 7,000 tons each at the Moorhead plant. The first pile has a double-insulated, white tent made from woven polyester. A second pile looks the same from out- side, but has only one layer. A third pile is an open-air check pile, or control to the experiment.

“Computer-controlled electronic thermometers within the structures will help determine how well each tent does its
work. The hope, said Bass, is that the new tents will prevent loss of sugarbeets from the great piles that must stay frozen, sometimes until March and April. ‘The beets are OK until they start thawing. The beets inside will remain frozen, but we get deterioration on the outside beets,’ Bass said, ‘especially when there’s rain.’ ” 

    Early Delivery Plan Wins Grower Support — “Minidoka County (Idaho) beet growers are still enthused about their early delivery program of 1982.