Dave Miller is glad his 350-acre sugarbeet crop did better in 2014 than the year before on his farm located five miles north of Worland, Wyo.
He said his crop totaled 32 tons per acre with sugar content at 18 percent.
“The sugar was a little higher,” he said. “The year before was miserable. That’s when we had our wet, wet fall.”
But 2014 brought a different outcome.
“We had a really good year—a good growing year,” Dave said. “We got a little late start in the spring because of moisture, but other than that it was good.”
In fact the Wyoming Sugar Company in Worland reported near record crops. Worland is the county seat of Washakie County. The population was 5,487 at the 2010 census.
The region’s beet harvest yielded an average of 30 tons per acre and 18.32 percent sugar content. Growers avoided the hard freezes suffered by northern Wyoming beet growers.
Family focus
Dave, 56, and his family operate Eugene Miller & Sons. He is a third-generation beet grower. His father, Eugene, 84, and son, Matthew, 30, are partners.
Dave and his wife, Sally, just celebrated 34 years of marriage. She teaches kindergarten at South Side Elementary in the Washakie County School System in Worland.
Their middle son, Mark, 28, also lives in Worland and is a chemical engineer at oilfield service company Baker Hughes in North Dakota. Daughter, Alissa, is a physical education teacher at South Side elementary and is the athletic trainer at Worland High School.
“My grandfather, Pete Miller, started farming sugarbeets and then my dad and his brother farmed together,” Dave said. “After I graduated from high school they split up, and then dad and I started farming. That’s how I got into it.”
Wyoming Sugar Company
More than a decade ago the Worland factory was close to shutting down. Built in 1917, the factory went through several name changes from the original Wyoming Sugar to Holly and then Imperial Sugar.
In 2002, the factory was purchased by growers, landowners and investors and renamed Wyoming Sugar Company. They pooled together as shareholders to form a limited liability company.
The introduction of Roundup Ready beets proved instrumental for Wyoming Sugar.
“If we didn’t have Roundup Ready come in that year we would have lost the factory, and we wouldn’t have beets here anymore,” Dave said. “That encouraged the people to grow the acres.”
Those who took the gamble to buy the aging facility from the bankrupt Imperial Sugar Company will be celebrating their 13th anniversary later this year.
“We were hard-pressed to get acres before, but with Roundup Ready we found the acres,” Dave said. “Since the growers purchased it, we’ve done pretty well.”
Through the years, the company evolved into being grower-owned, with an operating board and skeleton management team. The company was designated a cooperative in December 2010. Unlike most beet cooperatives, the factory in Worland is its only one.
Granulated sugar produced at the factory goes to destinations that include Utah and Chicago. Beet by-products, like pressed pulp and molasses, are also sold.
The farthest trip to the factory piling station for Dave is only eight miles.
Dave served on the Washakie County Beet Growers Board for about 10 years and departed after two boards merged following the purchase of the factory.
Looking ahead
Dave is anticipating the upcoming season.
“Usually our target date for planting is about April 8th to the 10th,” he said.
Irrigation on his farm is split nearly in half between flood and pivot.
“I wish we had a little more pivot,” he said. “We’re going to try and get more in the future.”
Growers in the region have not been bothered by weed resistance.
“Maybe one or two weeds pop up that are resistant to Roundup Ready, but so far we’ve been lucky,” Dave said. The rotation with malt barley helps. So has not growing other Roundup crops.
The family also grows about 700 acres of malt barley along with corn silage and alfalfa hay for calves in their feedlot.
Dave started growing beets when he was 19, the year after he graduated from Worland High.
“I’m happy with the decision,” he said. “I mean it’s like every job. You have days when it’s good and days when it’s not, but overall it has been very fulfilling.”
All growers feel the ups and downs of sugar prices.
“It’s like every commodity; you have your ups and downs. For everybody I talk to, it’s on a positive note. Hopefully it will continue up.”
Now he works alongside one of his own sons.
“It’s going really well,” Dave said. “It’s valuable that you get to work with your dad and then you get to work with your son. I think everybody would want to do that.”