After being delayed a couple weeks due to excess moisture, sugarbeet harvest started on the afternoon of Monday, Oct. 7 at the Scott Buxbaum farm north of Fairview, Mont. As both a grower and president of the Montana Dakota Beet Growers Association, Buxbaum talked about the harvest and negotiations with Sidney Sugars during a short break from digging last Wednesday morning.
Harvest has been sporadic with a couple of days of digging, followed by a shutdown caused by slippery conditions at the pile grounds, and then frost.
"The rain Wednesday, Oct. 9 wasn't enough to stop us from digging," said Buxbaum. "But safety issues at the pile grounds caused the shutdown. That was necessary; Sidney Sugars and the growers want everyone to be safe."
The Sugar Valley station had extremely muddy grounds to begin harvest, with fewer pilers than usual, also causing a bit of delay for growers.
Growers were able to go full speed again on Oct. 15. Most of the beets have healed from the frost, but sugar content has probably been affected.
"Normally, the sugar content increases every day of harvest," Buxbaum said. "The frost may have either set the beets so the sugar won't increase, or it could have killed some beets, which would mean a decrease in sugar if the beet tries to grow new tops."
Fears of a muddy, ugly harvest have largely proved unfounded.
"We were pleasantly surprised when we got into the fields," said Buxbaum. "It was drier than most people thought it would be. The beets kept growing and absorbed a lot of the excess moisture. The region was fortunate to escape the big snowstorms to the west and east."
Buxbaum estimated tonnage of 34 to 34.5 with sugar at 16.9 to 17 percent on his farm.
"It's not the best, but all the moisture diluted the sugar content," he said. "However, we're seeing a tonnage gain compared to the root sample estimates, because of all the rain. So that's good."
As of Wednesday morning, Buxbaum's harvest was about 20 percent complete, which he said was not too bad for running just a few days.
One of the truck drivers on the Buxbaum place is Julio, an exchange visitor from Brazil. He and Zoltan, from Hungary, have been part of the Buxbaum farm since mid-March.
"They have been excellent," Buxbaum said. "They have done pretty much everything."
The two men will go their respective ways mid-November, taking the experiences and knowledge they have gained back to their native countries.
With negotiations to buy the factory dead, the MonDak beet growers are in Year 1 of a three-year contract during which they took a cut in price per ton.
"It's too early to tell what will happen next time," said Buxbaum. "We took a huge cut this time. We wouldn't be able to survive another cut. We have to hope that we can get a better contract or, at a minimum, stay the same."
Commenting on this season, Buxbaum said that it's been a tough year for everyone. Dryland farmers are still combining what had promised to be a record crop. Flooding in the Fairview area made planting late for some growers. Storms wreaked havoc in some regions. Hay is still being put up.
"There are issues harvesting any kind of crop and lots of worry," said Buxbaum. "But we'll get the beets. The forecast looks promising; we'll get the crop out. We've had a lot of bad, but we're fortunate that we're not looking at what Powell [Wyo.] is facing with the snow and cold they've had."