The Sidney herald., 1956-11-08
Sugar Beet
Harvest Totals
100000 Tons
Montana'S

Billings, Mont. - Montana
bumper sugar beet harvest, com
pleted in virtually all areas las
week, win pour nearly a quartz
of a billion pounds of white
sparkling sugar into the nation.
sugar bowl, and some $l2, 000, 00t
into the pockets of Montana farm
ers.
With the final tally expected to
show about 800, 900 tons of beets
harvested and sugar content re-
ported running well above the
normal national average of is
per cent, this years crop is like
ly to be one of the most produc-
tive of sugar in the states 50-year
beet-growing history
Yields of beets per acre, when
the final figures r in, will ex-
coed last years average of las
tons, a record for the state, and
will be some 20 per cent higher
than the average of the previous
10 years
This years outstanding beet
crop was produced on about the
same acreage as last years $4,000
harvested acres. Government con-
trolls restricted paintings both
years.
Improved farming practices,
stepped-up production efficiency
and good growing weather all
had a part in producing the record
crop, sugar company officials said
Plenty of sunshine during the few
weeks preceding the harvest,
when the beets have attained
their growth and concentrate ON
making sugar." contributed
to the high sugar content
hey said.
Although the harvest is now
,ver, except for a few scattered
olots, processing of the beets will
continue into December and Jan
larry as the states four beet
ugar factories work down the
luge piles now filling the factory
The American Crystal
sugar Company operates a plant
t Missoula, The Great Western
,ugar Company one at Billings
nd the Holly Sugar Corporation
as factories at Hardin and Sid
ey.
Montana usually ranks fifth or
ixth in production among the
atoms "a beet-growing states
If the states S. counties, u are
.sted by the u. S. Department
f Agriculture as producing sugar
eets, including Big Horn, Blaine,
Carbon, Cascade,
Dawson, jefferson, Lake,
.ewis and Clark, Madison, Mis-
oula, Phillips, Pondera, Prairie,
Richland, Rosebud, San-
Iers, Saltwater, Treasure and
Yellowstone
The Montana harvest this year
vas practically 100 per cent
lechanized. with ingenious ma
mines pulling up the beets, cut
ng off the leaves and crown" J
nd loading the beetS into trucks |
: all work that formerly was 6
one by hand The major spring l
oeration - thinning or re-
icing the stand of young plants $
the row - also was performed 3
echanically on more of this I
crop than in any previius =
,ar, materially cutting down the !.
mount of hand labor required L
some areas, thinning was done T
it'll machines on as much as 80 {
,rcent of the acreage =
INFLAMMATION has been a major s
ctor in increasing yields As well
in reducing costs and increas- =
6 efficiency of production This 5,
at least partly because machines Z
, the work faster and help the o
rmer to get it done on time. L
This is the point Of view stress :
| by Ed Verhelst one of Mon ?
has largest beet growers, and :
bert and Morris Grammens, ;,
BIO farm some of VerhelSt'S land =
the Yellowstone River Valley, o
ar Big Horn .
Sure, we save about one-third
the cost of the thinning opera p
IN by using machines but that 81
1T the prime reason we do it," 6
says, adding IA