Sugar Producer

14 Sugar Producer AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016 "Head and Shoulders above the rest." 1-800-ROW-CROP 1-800-769-2767 • www.hsrowcrop.com Shown is our 35 Ton, 52'' Boom Beet Cart. We have models ranging from 20, 24, 30, and 35 Ton. Different tire options are available and also tracks. Tracks will fit any 13.19 BC standard Ag Hub. Our other products also include a Ridger, Deridger, Row Crop Cultivators, Band Sprayers, Broadcast Sprayers, and various Planter Attachments. Call for Pricing today 160314H&SMfg16v.indd 1 4/20/16 8:26 AM acres of conventional beets grown in the valley. But the seed companies have not produced any conventional seeds in the last two years. So when that's inventory is gone it's done." Curt and Suzanne have five full-time employees. "Several have been with us for years and years and years," Suzanne said. "We couldn't do it without them. They're invaluable. We're lucky to have them." HIGH HUMIDITY Temperatures, especially night-time temperatures, and correlated respiratory sugar losses increase as the season progresses, especially in July and August. Harvest is usually concluded in July, but there has been a tendency in recent years to extend the harvest later in the month, often running into August. This has occurred due to increasingly larger sugarbeet yields. "The beet varieties that work for our desert southwest will keep growing into July when it really starts to get hot and humid at the same time," Curt said. "They'll grow through the summertime for us. You get into August and we have too much of a rot problem and the quality of the beet deteriorates rapidly. So we try and stay away from August. Beets are fine in warm weather, but they're not fine in warm weather plus humidity. That's the criteria that really shut it down. "We receive our water from the Colorado River," Curt said. "It's all surface irrigation. Everything is gravity-flowed. There's absolutely no groundwater that's utilized. It's too hot. "We have salty ground to begin with," he said. "We have to mange the salts that are in the soil. That's why we utilize surface The longest haul to the factory for Curt's beets is 30 miles. The average haul is 12 miles. Curt and his brother have a harvesting pool with two other growers. "We have a formula that we use," Curt said. "Whoever finishes harvesting last the previous year starts first the next year. It works out good in that respect. Last year I started early, second in line, so I finished up about the first of July. I had a little over 38 tons to the acre and 17.09 percent sugar. "The beets keep growing throughout the summer," Curt said. "We'll start the first week in April and average 28 tons per acre. Then when we finish the last week of July we hope to average 60 to 65 tons. This year we're projecting a 44.5 ton average." California growers adopted Roundup Ready sugarbeets four years ago. "We have 25,000 acres planted to be harvested this year of which I think 21,000 is Roundup Ready," Curt said. "Some growers had stored some conventional varieties. So we have a little over 4,000 water from the Colorado River." Water delivery to the Imperial Valley and power production is provided by the Imperial Irrigation District, first organized in 1911. The All American Canal conveys about 2.6 million acre feet of water per year to 425,000 acres of farmland and seven cities and towns. The canal runs along the Mexican border to the south. Water is then diverted through a series of canals northward to towns and fields. Since the land slopes northward toward the Salton Sea, little power is needed to move water. The Salton Sea is a shallow, closed-drainage saline lake located on the San Andreas Fault, predominantly in California's Imperial and Coachella valleys. BIOTECH SPOKESWOMAN Suzanne is part of a group of 18 farm women from 11 sugarbeet states who are sugar industry spokeswomen for biotechnology. The group formed last year in response to the anti-GMO movement. The spokeswomen use science and factual information to communicate through all platforms about the safety and environmental benefits of genetically engineered sugar. "Growers needed to do something," Suzanne said. "We needed to speak up and get involved. Growers are really good at talking to each other but haven't been good at speaking out with other people. The entire GM dialogue got way ahead of us. "From our standpoint, the Roundup Ready beet has been tested and tested," she said. "It took quite some effort to get them approved for use. So with that comes the assumption that we know this technology is good. In the meantime, the activists sort of took the issue and ran with it, while we HIGH HEAT The average high temperature in Brawley, Calif., tops 100 degrees from June through September.

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