Area beet farmers will be waiting to dig this week after being notified Monday by Western Sugar that they would not be accepting another quota of beets until possibly sometime after Thanksgiving.
Cowley area farmer Rodney Crosby said about 60 percent of his beets have been harvested and sent to the sugar processing plant and now he is waiting to see if WS will accept another quota in the future. While there is still plenty to do around the family farm and ranch, Crosby said he would like to get the rest of the beets out of the ground. It only takes the Crosbys about three hours of work to dig the weekly allotted amount, he said.
Aside from 300-plus acres of sugar beets, Crosby grows about the same acreage of grain, hay, beans and corn and keeps a herd of cattle on his Cowley area property. The beets are usually the biggest cash flow, followed closely by the cows, he said. This year, the beets might not pay off as much because of crop losses. The rest of his crops weren’t noticeably affected by October’s early cold snap, Crosby said.
Beet quality is still very good at the Crosby farm, although sugar content continues to drop as damaged beets work to regenerate, he said.
Area farmers are still waiting on a pending disaster declaration for the area, which was requested by Gov. Dave Freudenthal in a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack dated Oct. 23. Crosby said he didn’t know what loans or programs he might participate in if the disaster declaration comes through.
“It just depends on how everything turns out,” he said.
Crosby has been talking with his insurance agent lately, and representatives from the insurance company have toured area farms to get a look at the damaged crops. He said the insurance company is waiting for a letter from Western Sugar telling growers to stop digging beets, at which time the insurance company will get to work on insurance claims filed by farmers.