38th Harvest For Sidney Sugars Agriculturist

For the 38th straight year, Sidney Sugars Agriculturist Kerry Rasmussen has supervised beet harvest, organizing and training pile ground employees, working with growers, and doing everything possible to ensure that beet harvest runs as smoothly and trouble-free as possible for everyone. Rasmussen, who plans to retire from Sidney Sugars in the spring, expects harvest 2011 will be his last harvest as an agriculturist.

“It’s been a good run,” Rasmussen remarks. “I’ve served at every pile ground in the Sidney Sugars district with the exception of the factory yard. Each area is unique, but every area has great growers and I’ve enjoyed working with all of them.”

Rasmussen’s career as an agriculturist began in April 1973 when Holly Sugar hired him and sent him to Delta to learn the ropes. “I was born and raised in Sidney,” Rasmussen says. “Holly Sugar didn’t want to start a new hire in the place he was born, so they sent me to Delta.”

Delta closed in 1976 so Holly Sugar transferred Rasmussen to Worland, where he spent the next four years. In 1981, Rasmussen returned to Sidney and has worked as an agriculturist ever since, serving growers honestly and fairly, and becoming well respected in the process.

Rasmussen notes that when he returned to Sidney in 1981, employment difficulties resembled the problems employers have today in recruiting labor. “I came back to Sidney in 1981 during the last oil boom,” Rasmussen comments. “Because of all the oil activity, we had a lot of trouble finding help for several years in the ‘80s.”

Rasmussen first served the Glendive/Fallon/Terry grower district, and then in 1987 he took over the Fairview growing district. In 2000, he switched grower areas again and spent several years serving the Savage/Culbertson district. When Savage joined Powder River and Pleasant View as a single grower district, Rasmussen served this entire southern district before returning to the Fairview area three years ago. He has worked with Fairview area growers for the past three years and will finish out his career as agriculturist with the Sugar Valley district.

In his 38 years as agriculturist, Rasmussen has seen and worked through every situation imaginable during harvest. “Each harvest is unique,” he says. “Sometimes it’s too hot and we can’t start on schedule, or we may have rain delays. We’ve had harvests delayed because of late September freezes or early snows. Every so often we get an uneventful year with no delays at all.”

He adds, “I prefer dry harvests. Beets come in clean and dry which is good for everyone. When piler crews have to start scraping mud off pilers this gets really tough on a crew.”

Rasmussen puts in a lot of time preparing for harvest, as he must train and organize the pile ground crews. “We have 50 plus employees at Sugar Valley here in Fairview,” he remarks. “We run 24 hours a day, most employees are new, so every year I’m training new people at the pilers. We used to get return people, but we now only have a 20% return rate, so I’m teaching new people every year. It is ongoing training and organizing but the beet growers go through the same thing each harvest with new drivers.”

He adds, “This is why we need to remember to work safely. Safety is paramount.”

Rasmussen has seen a lot of changes through the years, but he thinks the biggest change has come with Roundup Ready beets. “Roundup Ready makes weed control so easy,” he notes. “We had a limited number of herbicides available for sugarbeets so weed tolerance was increasing and fields were getting weedier and weedier. However, Roundup Ready beets have made weed control much easier.”

He adds, “Everything went very well this year with the Roundup Ready beets. Growers had rules and regulations to follow, but growers abided by the rules and it went very well.”

Rasmussen looks back on his 38 years with no regrets. His duties as agriculturist have kept him busy, but he has enjoyed all aspects of the work. “Sugarbeets are a very interesting crop,” he says. “There is always something new to learn. After 38 years, you’d think I’d have it all figured out, but there is always something new that comes up.”

He continues, “I have especially enjoyed working with the growers. In fact, that’s what I liked best. I also like not having to punch a time clock and I like working outside. I had the best of both worlds.”

Rasmussen plans to farm full time after he retires from Sidney Sugars this spring. “My great grandfather homesteaded near Brorson in 1910,” Rasmussen comments. “I’ve been farming part time with my dad on nights and weekends, but I’ve now bought the farm from my parents. Now I plan to farm full time and actually do a good job. I’m looking forward to farming on a full time basis, as I don’t want to just retire and quit. I want something to do.”

Duane Peters, agriculturist hired by Sidney Sugars this summer, will take over the responsibilities of Sugar Valley after Rasmussen retires.