By Brad Carlson
Recurring powdery mildew appeared early; CLS has been intensifying in recent years. ![]() Powdery mildew and Cercospora Leaf Spot have been found in some southern and eastern Idaho sugar beet fields. Capital Press File The Pacific Northwest Pest Alert Network in late June notified sugar beet growers in southwest Idaho and eastern Oregon about powdery mildew, Cercospora Leaf Spot and the looper insect.Capital Press The advisories did not worry Wendell Robinson, agricultural manager for grower-owned cooperative Amalgamated Sugar’s western region. “At this point, everything is manageable and treatable,” he said. Robinson said beet fields should remain healthy overall if growers stay aware of pest and disease threats, and know how to treat them. A crop consultant with J.R. Simplot Co. found powdery mildew in fields near Adrian, Ore., and Parma, Idaho, a June 23 alert said. Staff with Amalgamated Sugar confirmed the finding. The alert said several fungicides are available to treat powdery mildew, and that applications should be repeated every two to three weeks depending on the disease pressure and chemistry used. A network publication said the fungus — whose spores can blow in from plants that carried over from winter, including previously infected seed beets — causes small white patches on both leaf surfaces. Widespread in several Western states for more than 40 years, it is often treated with sulfur dust. Powdery mildew is “more or less a recurring problem we are having in the Treasure Valley” of southwestern Idaho and eastern Oregon, said Amalgamated Sugar Plant Health Manager Oliver Neher. “Most of the time we see it in early July and it moves from west to east, he said. “We are seeing it this year a little bit early.” Neher does not expect powdery mildew to be more of a problem than usual. Timely application of fungicide makes it fairly easy to control, he said. The network on June 25 advised beet growers to start scouting for CLS as temperatures rise, beet field rows start closing and irrigation stays intense. Favorable conditions for the fungus that causes CLS materialize when average nighttime temperatures exceed 60 degrees and humidity is 90 percent or higher for at least five hours, the alert said. An increase in fungicide resistance makes proper chemistry rotation important in treating for CLS, the alert said. It recommended consulting with Amalgamated field staff. Sugar beet growers can control CLS by applying fungicide in a timely manner and by not over-watering crops, Robinson said. CLS was not a major problem in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon until four to five years ago, Neher said. “We saw a shift in temperatures and irrigation methods,” he said. As more irrigators used sprinkler pivots and hand lines, the moisture part of the equation became more favorable for the fungus that causes CLS, he said. Last year saw many very overcast days with high relative humidity. “We even saw CLS in furrow-irrigated fields, where it is not so common,” Neher said. If this year’s wildfire season is active, smoke conditions could increase relative humidity and in turn keep conditions favorable for CLS as leaves stay moist longer, he said. Also June 25, the network said Amalgamated Sugar reported that loopers, which are minor leaf-feeding pests controllable with biological or chemical means, were found in fields in the Caldwell, Idaho, area. Robinson said the small, worm-like loopers often are controlled by applying an insecticide in conjunction with a fungicide. https://ift.tt/2MuRA0d Sugar Beet News | via Capital Press https://ift.tt/1aBsEdt June 27, 2018 at 01:33PM Bloomington, MN – Betaseed announced today continued sponsorship and support for the Ralph Engelstad Arena athletic activities on the University of North Dakota campus in Grand Forks, ND. Betaseed started their sponsorship in 2014 and has since increased the contribution level given the continued opportunity to support scholarships that positively contribute to academic success.
“We’re excited to continue with this sponsorship,” said Jason Evenson, Regional Sales Manager for Betaseed. “We have had the opportunity to host and greet customers and allied industry visitors at The Ralph, while also contributing to student success. Betaseed puts a high value on sponsorships that support the community, and this specific sponsorship does just that.” “The Ralph is a central meeting place for many of our customers, giving us the opportunity to talk with them over a meal and a great hockey game, while supporting student academics and athletes,” said Lynn Dusek, Betaseed Sales Manager in the American Crystal growing region. “It definitely seems to be a win-win situation for UND and for Betaseed.” Betaseed, Inc., headquartered in Bloomington, Minnesota, is North America’s premier sugarbeet seed supplier. From our start in 1970, Betaseed has maintained a longstanding commitment to the beet sugar industry, with research and seed production operations in several states and marketing seed to all sugarbeet markets. Our mission is to develop the best performing seed products and services through innovative people, plant breeding, and seed technology. ![]() (WAHPETON, N.D.) — Amity introduces the 2250 Air Cart, a multiuse air cart engineered for use with air drills, planters, chisel plows, and strip till applicators. The 2250 Air Cart has a 225-bushel (up to 9-ton) compartment made with noncorrosive stainless steel that will not deteriorate with exposure to sunlight and does not sweat like plastic does. Amity’s 2250 Air Cart is equipped with an optional steerable axle with spacing of 20, 22, and 30 inches and 70 centimeters. This flexible air cart can be set for passive steering to follow planters and strip till units or for precision active steering for in-crop cover seeding and side band fertilizer in your standing crop. The Amity 2250 Air Cart can also work with other air carts to temporarily increase capacity for additional inputs. Built with an ISO-compliant variable rate meter, the Amity 2250 Air Cart easily adapts to the tools you already have and the applications you want to use it for. The shut-off slide isolates the meter from the tank for flexibility. Plus, the meter rolls can be easily changed for specialty applications. The Amity 2250 Air Cart also has an optional 10-inch auger for loading or unloading. The Amity 2250 Air Cart is produced by AGCO-Amity JV, LLC, based in Wahpeton, North Dakota. AGCO-Amity JV, LLC is a Joint Venture formed in 2011 between Amity Technology of Fargo, ND, a leading provider of sugar beet harvesting equipment, and AGCO, based in Duluth, Georgia, a leading provider of agricultural equipment worldwide. This joint venture focuses on development and distribution of air seeding and tillage equipment under the Amity, Wil-Rich, Wishek, Sunflower, and Challenger brands. For more information, visit your Amity dealer or www.amitytech.com CONTACT: BEN SANDER (701) 232-4199 ![]()
A loader digs into a 120,000-ton pile of beets that was hard-frozen with ventilation, then covered with insulation, and finally “shrink-wrapped” with plastic. About 1.5 feet of deteriorated beets on the tops of piles insulate the rest, which is frozen to the top. Photo taken June 5, 2018, at Wahpeton, N.D. (Forum News Service/Agweek/Mikkel Pates)
WAHPETON, N.D. — Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative was supposed to have been done slicing sugar beets June 5, but is expected to continue through the end of the month — perhaps into July. That's due to a large 2017 crop and an expensive equipment breakdown in March. The company typically tries to size the storage piles for a May 20 end-date. The board projected the longer campaign based on a 9,700-ton-per-day slice to accommodate a 30.5-ton per-acre crop. No backup Things were going fine until the company's diffusion tower broke down in mid-March, interrupting processing for about 13 days. That was followed by the third-warmest May on record. A diffusion tower is a key component of the factory that extracts about 85 percent of the sugar and there is only one per factory — no backup. Beet cossettes — slices of beets — go into the bottom of the tower, which is a vessel that is about 35 feet wide and 115 feet tall. It works like a big grain auger, with flighting that slowly lifts the beet pulp up as hot water cascades down, flowing through and removing the sugar. When the pulp comes out the top, it is dried and sold as livestock feed. When full, the tower holds 3,000 tons of compressed pulp.
BMA, the German manufacturer who made the tower, last summer had done a detailed inspection and concluded it was in good shape. "None of us could have anticipated it," Wickstrom says of the failure. A cause has not been determined. Wickstrom praised the Minn-Dak staff and the repair teams for getting the piece repaired in 13 days, rather than the 30-day norm. BMA had a technician on-site within 36 hours of the failure. BMA air-freighted a new set of bottom screens from Germany to fit the factory's unique size. Other equipment was twisted and custom-made at machine shops "from Winnipeg to Minneapolis," Wickstrom said. Two crews of 20 outside contractors were on site 24 hours a day, taking broken pieces out of the tower and putting in new pieces as they arrived. Wickstrom was "very disappointed that it failed, but we did everything we possibly could to minimize the downside," he says. About 130,000 tons of beets would have been processed through that down time. Minn-Dak had expected to process 2.56 million tons but now expect to slice 2.43 million to 2.46 million tons. Another month The good news is the beets are storing better than expected.
The company is working on its final exterior pile and then will go to its three sheds with 80,000 tons each. Minn-Dak for the first time leased "chillers" to keep the beets in those sheds frozen. "We added a chiller system to the middle shed five weeks ago, and when we opened the doors to put the chiller in that shed, there were ice chunks on the floor," Wickstrom says. "We had a nice cold winter to get them frozen very hard. That's certainly helping us now and paying off," he said. Some of the cost may be covered by insurance, but final estimates on that won't come until September or October. Last November, Minn-Dak projected a "conservative" $32.50 per ton for the 2017 crop, based on average quality sugar. The company made an interim payment June 1 based on $30 per ton for average quality beets. He doesn't anticipate changing that payment from the $30 to $32.50 per ton range, even with the costs of the breakdown. Shareholder costs vary, and most growers can break even or better at $32 a ton, he said. Two unknowns The two big unknowns are whether the beets will store for 25 to 30 days and how much and how quickly Minn-Dak's insurance company will cover the multi-million dollar repairs. "It's obviously a very large claim," Wickstrom says, but the company insures other beet cooperatives and "we're optimistic they'll be fair." The delayed slice campaign will mean the company's 2018 crop harvest date will be around Sept. 18. Over the past five years, the harvest at times has started as early as late August. Typically, harvest starts from the third week in August until mid-September, depending on crop size and development. The co-op also cut back 2018 acres to 88,000 planted acres, down from 95,000 acres in 2017. That assumes 30-ton per-acre average yield that growers have achieved over the past three years. American Crystal Sugar Co., based in Moorhead, Minn., completed its slice May 23. They harvested more than 12 million tons, a record, and started processing in their five factories on Aug. 17, "It was a very good storage year," said Brian Ingulsrud, vice president for agriculture. "We had a cooler than normal spring which really helped for good storage of the beets." https://ift.tt/2HIdQB8 Sugar Beet News | via www.agweek.com http://www.agweek.com June 12, 2018 at 11:28AM |
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