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This article was originally run on www.agweek.com. MOORHEAD, Minn. — A cooperative of sugar beet growers plans to purchase American Crystal Sugar Company's Sidney, Mont., sugar processing facility. Representatives of American Crystal Sugar Company and Big Sky Sugar Cooperative of Sidney, Mont., on Friday sent out a news release confirming that they have signed a non-binding letter of intent "providing the framework by which Big Sky would become the owner of the Sidney, Mont., sugar processing facility." American Crystal officials met with s...
BOZEMAN — Registration is now open for the 2019 Montana and Wyoming Malt Barley and Sugar Beet Symposium, which will be held Jan. 8-9 at the Billings Hotel and Convention Center in Billings. The event is hosted by the Mountain States Crop Education Association, or MSCEA, which is comprised of industry representatives as well as Montana State University Extension faculty members. The first day of the event will focus on barley production topics related to seed treatments and grain storage, as well as soil conservation and precision a...
BOZEMAN — Registration is now open for the 2019 Montana and Wyoming Malt Barley and Sugar Beet Symposium, which will be held Jan. 8-9 at the Billings Hotel and Convention Center in Billings. The event is hosted by the Mountain States Crop Education Association, or MSCEA, which is comprised of industry representatives as well as Montana State University Extension faculty members. The first day of the event will focus on barley production topics related to seed treatments and grain storage, as well as soil conservation and precision a...
The Roundup newspaper in Sidney, MT, held their first ever Harvest Carnival in conjuction with the annual Trail of Treats on Saturday, October 27. Children and their parents were invited to participate in the various activities both on the street and inside the Yellowstone Marketplace....
BOZEMAN — Registration is now open for the 2019 Montana and Wyoming Malt Barley and Sugar Beet Symposium, which will be held Jan. 8-9 at the Billings Hotel and Convention Center in Billings. The event is hosted by the Mountain States Crop Education Association, or MSCEA, which is comprised of industry representatives as well as Montana State University Extension faculty members. The first day of the event will focus on barley production topics related to seed treatments and grain storage, as well as soil conservation and precision a...
The North Dakota State University Williston Research Extension Center (WREC), Montana State University Eastern Agricultural Research Center (EARC) and U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Northern Plains Agricultural Research Lab in Sidney are partnering once again to showcase agricultural research underway in eastern Montana and western North Dakota. The 2nd annual MonDak Ag Research Summit will be held on Nov. 14 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mountain Time at the Richland County Event Center in Sidney. The summit was established last year and i...
It has been a rocky harvest with rain, snow and frost slowing progress on what should have been an excellent tonnage crop. However, good weather has provided good digging recently and beet harvest is coming to a close with Savage and Pleasantview completed and the other stations projected to be done by the end of this week. According to Sidney Sugars Agricultural manager Duane Peters, their earlier tonnage predictions have not born out due to cold weather in September and October, which stopped...
Savage's Alex McPherson is grateful for his family's success in the beet farming industry. McPherson is a fourth generation beet farmer, delving into farming following his 2006 graduation from Savage High School. Alex began helping his father, Craig, and more recently began taking over more of the day-to-day operations. "It's figuring out what needs to go where, and who needs to do what," he said. The family has about 550 acres of beet crop, and has an otherwise very diversified operation....
The Roundup held it's 15th annual beet decorating contest last week, and as always, the kids did a fantastic job of turning a rather ugly beet into something charming, and fun. Special thanks go to Tim Neu and his wonderful staff at Neu's Super Valu for hosting the event, and Powder Keg for providing prizes the kids, and parents, were excited to win. Click here for full album....
The North Dakota State University Williston Research Extension Center (WREC), Montana State University Eastern Agricultural Research Center (EARC) and U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Northern Plains Agricultural Research Lab in Sidney are partnering once again to showcase agricultural research underway in eastern Montana and western North Dakota. The 2nd annual MonDak Ag Research Summit will be held on Nov. 14 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mountain Time at the Richland County Event Center in Sidney. The summit was established last year and i...
The sugar beet leaves are starting to turn yellow as the plants mature and growers and Sidney Sugars gear up for this year's harvest. Early harvest will start September 10 at the Sugar Valley (Fairview) station followed by the factory district on the 11th, Savage the 17th, Culbertson the 19th , Pleasant View the 24th and Powder River October 1st. Acres and tons will initially be limited as crews make sure pilers are operating correctly. The factory will begin slicing on September 12, four days a...
This past Inter-Campaign (Summer) has been busy shipping our sugar across the U.S. to our customers. As we do each year, we end campaign with our sixteen storage bins completely full of sugar. Now, as we approach the end of summer and a new campaign, our bins are nearly empty and we are ready for new sugar. Summer is also a busy time for the factory as we perform regular maintenance and complete special projects and Capital improvements. One of the projects we have completed is our new Pebbled...
Kjeld Jonsson, a Savage area beet farmer and current president of the Montana-Dakota Beet Growers Association, is glad to forge forward following the July court ruling in favor of local farmers. Local beet farmers found themselves reluctantly amidst a court battle that began three years ago, between the Army Corps of Engineers and Defenders of Wildlife, over a fish bypass that would determine the fate of irrigation farming in our area. The Intake Diversion weir was mandated by Congress more...
Determining the risk of severe fusarium head blight, also known as scab, for a particular area is as easy as going to North Dakota State University Extension's Small Grain Disease Forecasting Model website, selecting the nearest town and the crop's estimated growth stage, then tapping the "Get Forecast" icon. The website (https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/cropdisease) provides forecasts for scab and other diseases such as tan spot, Stagonospora (Septoria) blotch and wheat leaf rust; maps showing the...
Dryland growers in the MonDak area can take advantage of a program through Sidney Sugars to test the benefits of spent lime on their fields. The lime and loading at the factory yard are free. In the vast dryland fields of eastern Montana and western North Dakota, high acidic soils are becoming more common, preventing healthy crops. About five years ago, soils in the Froid area tested between 5.0 and 5.8 pH, which indicates high acid. In response, the USDA-ARS applied spent lime at a rate of...
With the 2018 farm bill being critically important to Montana’s farmers and ranchers, the Montana Farm Bureau was extremely disappointed that H.R. 2 failed by a 198 for and 213 against vote. The failure to pass this farm bill was a vote against the country’s hard-working farmers and ranchers. “The House version of the 2018 Farm Bill is good for farmers, ranchers and rural Montana. It protects key features of federal crop insurance, improves commodity programs, and streamlines conservation programs in ways that are good for producers and the env...
Ever wander around a sugar beet factory? Want to learn about the controversy surrounding the Lower Yellowstone Intake Diversion Dam? Plan to take part in the Montana Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers Regional Ag Tour June 1-2 in Sidney. The tour, which departs from the Best Western Golden Prairie Inn, kicks off mid-Friday afternoon with a stop at the Sidney Sugar Beet Factory followed by a tour, social and dinner at Meadowlark Brewing. Saturday’s first tour stop is Safflower Technologies, which grows seed for farmers in Montana and N...
ACH Seeds announced the winners of the 2017 National Sugar Bounty Program at the 2018 American Sugarbeet Growers Association Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. The national winner, Dave Apers of Doverland Farms in Dover Centre, Ontario was awarded a customized Polaris Ranger as well as trip expenses and registration to the ASGA meeting. Seven regional winners were also invited to the ASGA meeting, and received a plaque and Sugar Bounty Program jacket. The regional winners were chosen from 36...
A Montana State University scientist who is striving to overcome a widespread problem for U.S. farmers – herbicide-resistant weeds – has won a national award for his achievements so far. Prashant Jha, an associate professor at the Southern Agricultural Research Center in the College of Agriculture and the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station, was named Outstanding Early Career Weed Scientist during the Weed Science Society of America's 2018 annual meeting in Arlington, Virginia. The soc...
Sidney Sugars' Agriculturist Kathryn Cayko has been hard at work testing methods to combat sugar beet crop damage from springtail infestation. Springtails are tiny, wingless insect-like hexapods that live in the soil and cause damage to growing beets. They are visible to the naked eye and can be found just under the soil crust. Springtails live in straw during the winter, but feed on both the root and meat of the sugar beet. It was a "perfect storm" that created favorable conditions for...
The process of extracting sugar from beets dates back to 1747 when a German chemist first demonstrated that crystals formed after a crude extraction from pulverized beets were identical in properties with sugar cane crystals. From there, beet varieties and processing have evolved to what we have today. Beet sugar makes up 54% of domestic sugar production with a close and cooperative relationship existing between excellent growers and the plants that process the beets. Sidney Sugars is one of...
Sugarbeet growers Tim and Adam Cayko of the Sugar Valley district conduct strip trials each year to determine which variety of beet seed works best in their heavy soils. In addition to cooperating with Sidney Sugars, Caykos do their own real world testing, some through strip trials. "The best fields are the ones with the least amount of work, where the seeds come up well and the ground doesn't crust," Tim said. "The digging is more weather dependent." With two passes of each seed, side by side i...
Don Steinbeisser of Sidney recently received the Distinguished Service Award from the Montana Water Resources Association (MWRA) and its counterparts in North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming citing his lifelong dedication and concern for agriculture and water users throughout Montana, and for his effort and participation as a director of the MWRA. Steinbeisser has served on the Lower Yellowstone Irrigation District board of directors for 50 years, including 29 years as president and still...
The MonDak Ag Research Summit was held November 15th at the Richland County Event Center in Sidney. Agricultural scientists and researchers from the NDSU Williston Research Extension Center, MSU Eastern Agricultural Research Center, and USDA-ARS Northern Plains Agricultural Research Lab presented current and past research results. The presentations included management strategies that can save both dryland and irrigated growers time and money. The topics presented at the MonDak Ag Research...
Don Steinbeisser of Sidney recently received the Distinguished Service Award from the Montana Water Resources Association (MWRA) and its counterparts in North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming citing his lifelong dedication and concern for agriculture and water users throughout Montana, and for his effort and participation as a director of the MWRA. Steinbeisser has served on the Lower Yellowstone Irrigation District board of directors for 50 years, including 29 years as president and still...
