There’s no Xbox at the Samples farm in the Magic Valley of eastern Idaho.
Work and play is the same thing for sugarbeet growers Ryan and Alisha Samples, and their daughters Dakota, 16, and Rylee, 8, and son Ryker, 13.
“We’re proud of the work ethic and opportunities our kids have from working on the farm,” Alisha Samples said. “The best parts of living on a farm are the opportunities we have to work as a family.”
Idaho’s home
Ryan, 45, and Alisha, 40, farm 850 acres of sugarbeets, garden seed beans, dry beans, wheat and alfalfa near Burley, a city of about 15,000.
Ryan is the only child of Fred and Renae Samples, retired growers who have been married for 50 years and reside in Burley.
“My dad was originally from Colorado,” he said. “He had an uncle in Burley who managed the Simplot potato plant, and so his parents sent him there to find a job. He met and married my mom. Her family had a farm and so he started farming with them.”
After attending Utah State University to be an ag teacher, Samples returned to the Burley area to farm with his father.
“We did hay, dry beans and grain. I started doing sugarbeets about 20 years ago, because I wanted to expand my dad’s operation,” said Samples, who is shareholder in the Snake River Sugar Company. “I felt that we needed something more reliable than cover crops.”
Samples rented land and equipment from a grower for whom he had previously worked to get started in sugarbeets. He took over the farming operation about seven years ago when Fred retired.
Alisha also grew up in Burley and met Ryan when he returned from college. They were married in 1997.
“My dad had an agriculture-based job and so I was familiar with the farming lifestyle, but the ‘hours’ were a big adjustment for me,” she said. “The ‘traditional’ hours I grew up with, are definitely different than my “traditional” now. No bankers’ hours. And sometimes during the winter months, it’s an adjustment having Ryan around SO much!”
Alisha Samples said that in the early years of their marriage, the couple’s biggest challenges were securing enough land and equipment to make everything work.
“Of course, you always hope that your pay out covers the expenses incurred each year,” she said.
Early planting
The Samples use center line pivots and canals, and the Snake River is the main source of water for their operation. The Amalgamated Sugar Company factory is located about 15 miles from their farm and they haul sugarbeets to piling sites within three to five miles of their fields. They typically begin sugarbeet harvest on Oct. 10.
“Last year’s harvest was easy,” said Samples. “We didn’t have any moisture to deal with, and it was almost too dry. The yields were up and sugar was up. We had about 7 inches of rain in August, and then the beets started getting dry.”
He said that Magic Valley growers are finding themselves ahead of schedule this year.
“We started around the 25th and 26th of March, and it was about 20 degrees above normal,” he said. “We try to hold off watering until the first of May. We are about a month ahead of where we usually are and there are a lot of beets up.”
Dry conditions are a concern as Idaho growers look to the coming year, according to Samples.
“Everything is really dry now and there is no snow pack,” he said. “We watered a month earlier than usual. Hopefully we will have water that will last throughout the season and then the year to come after that. It’s a companywide concern because the reserve water is used up. There were about 1,200 to 1,400 acres that there wasn’t water for, so those acres were moved to other places.”
Giving back
The biggest challenge for the Samples family today is balancing their time and finding enough hours in the day to accomplish everything, according to Alisha. The family is involved in 4-H, FFA, and local youth sports, and Ryan and Alisha serve on several community boards.
“Ryan is on the County Fair board and is the president of the Cassia County Growers Association Board for sugarbeets. I am a 4-H Club leader and the superintendent of the 4-H Sugarbeet Project,” Alisha said. “Trying to balance getting the farm work done and having a successful crop year, along with daily activities of being a family as well as contributing members of the community is our goal.”