SIDNEY, Mont.—This year could be a banner year for sugarbeets, especially in the Yellowstone Valley between Montana and North Dakota, south central Montana, and northern Wyoming.
Duane Peters, agronomist at Sidney Sugars Inc., in Sidney, said root samples taken by the company show there is a 29.2 ton crop coming. That would be a record crop at Sidney Sugars, which is part of the American Crystal Sugar Company.
“The best we have ever had is a 27.5 ton crop. We are really excited about this crop,” Peters said, adding everything to the west of Sidney, including growers that grow for Western Sugar Cooperative, are having a nice crop, too.
Peters spoke to producers at Montana State University’s Eastern Ag Research Center during field days in mid-July.
The situation is much different to the east in the Red River Valley between Fargo, N.D., and Minnesota, according to peters, because producers there were not able to get the crop in on time due to an exceptionally wet spring. Sugar companies there are predicting only a 16-21 ton crop.
“However, if the crop improves, that number will go up. We’ll see as time goes on,” he said, adding that sugar prices are trending upward.
“We’ve had issues with Mexico dumping sugar for the past 18-24 months, but they have stopped doing that,” he said.
Peters showed the replicated coded beet plots behind him at field days that are all numbered. They grow several improved sugarbeet varieties from different companies in their field tests. The varieties are replicated in the plot trials, and in the fall, they take the harvest data, break the code and discover what numbers correspond with the varieties.
Each of the varieties will include such harvest data as fusarium and cercospora tolerance, root yield, sugar percentage, sugar yield in pounds per acre and extractable sugar in pounds per acre.
Later the numbers are revealed and the producers can find out which ones Sidney Sugars has approved for growing.
Peters said there were some nematode problems in the surrounding sugarbeet fields but “the numbers are low.” However, cercospora leaf spot is showing up in sugarbeet fields, and producers should scout for it.
During the tour, Dr. Barry Jacobsen, MSU interim department head of research centers, said he is excited that his discovery of BmJ WG will be on the market for sugarbeet growers to use as early as next year.
“We discovered the disease-fighting bacterium in fields right here at Sidney, Mont., in 1994, and now it can be used to fight cercospora leaf spot of sugarbeets, and other diseases all over the world,” Jacobsen said, smiling broadly.
Certis USA, a top manufacturer of biological pesticides, has BmJ WG, up for regulatory review in the U.S. and Canada, and then it will be available for producers.
“It should pass the review any day now,” Jacobsen said, adding he has shown that this naturally-occurring bacterium is beneficial in fighting bacterial, viral and fungal diseases in a variety of crops.
“I have people calling me and telling me they are using this in other states on lettuce diseases, tomato diseases, and more,” Jacobsen said.
BmJ WG works by causing the natural defenses of the plant to turn on and attack the disease, he explained. Using a seed treatment with BmJ WG will give it more protection against cercospora.
Based on the levels of disease control found in trials, the proposed crops that Certis plans to use BmJ WG on will be potatoes, sugarbeets, cucurbits, fruiting vegetables, lettuce, spinach and pecans.
Both potatoes and sugarbeets are grown in fields in northwestern North Dakota and northeastern Montana.
Dr. TheCan Caesar, USDA-ARS soil microbiologist at Sidney, said cercospora can cause a 45 percent loss of sugarbeet yield and can cause the sugar content to fall.
Caesar has also been studying biological controls of cercospora leaf spot.
She has found a plant pathogen “pantoea agglomera” neutralizes the toxic effects of cercosporin, and is moving to field trials after finding success in the laboratory.
In other discussions at the Sidney field days, Hans Schneider, director of the center and a plant pathologist, said he has conducted numerous studies on sugarbeet cyst nematodes in the Netherlands and is beginning work here on nematodes.
“We do have a nematode problem and it is costing us yield,” Schneider told producers.
A three-year rotation can help in resisting nematodes, and in the Netherlands, they found out using mustard in the rotation helped. In addition, seed treatments can also give protection against nematodes.
Finally, Syngenta has announced there will be two new nematode-tolerant sugarbeet varieties coming out that are intended for northern Wyoming.
Source: www.farmandranchguide.com