For the Lapp brothers, it was a good season to be a beet farmer.
This year, they were selected by Sidney Sugars Incorporated as the top producing sugar beet farmers in the small farm, “0-247 acres” category. Winners are judged based on a formula that factors in qualities such as tonnage and sugar content levels.
“This harvest was the best one ever. The soil conditions were perfect. We had little rain and no equipment breakdowns. In a normal year, those can happen often,” said Gary Lapp.
For 28 years Gary and Duane have farmed together as brothers following their dad’s retirement. Together they formed a partnership in 1986 and have been at it ever since.
This is the last year they will grow sugar beets and are planning to try something new next year although they are still determining what that might be. In an effort to cut down on irrigation, this was the first fall they planted winter wheat.
“We had a good run with beets all those years and this is a good way to go out,” Duane Lapp said.
Their farm is located 16 miles west of Terry in Custer County. This year they farmed 51 acres of sugar beets along with 74 acres of wheat and 180 acres of alfalfa. The remaining acres of their 450-acre farm are in summer fallow and they follow a three-year crop rotation.
Together they began growing beets in 1991 and have received this designation as a top producer four times. With a 12-year difference in age, the brothers said they developed a close relationship as adults.
Farming has been a family tradition in the Lapp family for a number of generations. Their grandparents on both their mother’s and their father’s side of the family were farmers. Their parents, George and Betty, began farming on their own in 1948, when they moved from Savage following World War II. Duane remembers helping with the family business at an early age, beginning to drive equipment as early as the age of eight or nine years old.
Today, Duane and Gary find their individual strengths in farming tend to complement each other. While Gary handles managing the books and purchasing, Duane handles the irrigation and has a knack for making the day-to-day decisions that pertain to the farmland. Gary professes to be better at handling busted machinery and driving, while Duane enjoys staying on the farm and working the daily operations.
“It’s nice to have someone you can rely on to take over when you need them to,” Gary Lapp said.
Both agree farming was the lifestyle they would have chosen for themselves because it affords them the opportunity to be outside while offering the flexibility of being their own bosses.
“Farming has been a good life for me and if I had the chance, I would do it again,” Gary Lapp said.
“Raising beets has been fun these past years and this year was one of the best years yet,” said Duane Lapp.
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