I've mentioned before the problems the beet farmers are having getting the sugar beets in and now it has come to my attention how much worse it got. Last week on Monday and Tuesday it got really cold and froze the beets. Once the beets freeze like this the farmers have lots of trouble.
The factory now only allows the farmers to pull 1% of their beets on a daily basis since the frozen beets have to go straight to the factory and be processed and storage can't happen. This has slowed harvest to a crawl and while I was in yesterday I was told it would take another 90 days to get all the beets out at the rate it is going. Believe me, that will never happen so some of the crop is going to be lost.
Most of the guys have insurance but that doesn't even cover the costs of the crop so it is a money losing deal for the farmers. On top of that, to keep the sugar beet factory open a few years ago the farmers had to buy the plant and run it themselves. Without all the sugar beets that are contracted the factory is going to lose money too. So not only are the farmers losing money on the beets in the field, they are losing money on the factory too for a double whammy. Damn, it's got to be tough.
Then the equipment dealers and bankers and fertilizer suppliers and all the other assorted business that deal with beet farmers are sweating the situation because they don't know if they are going to get their money or what is going to happen. The trickle down effect of the failure in the beets could run a long ways and it could hurt a lot of people starting with the farmers themselves.
Damn I feel for these guys. We needed the moisture earlier but it sure screwed them up. I sure am glad I am not a beet farmer right now, I would be crying in my beer that's for sure.
Tough times never last, but tough people do. Robert H. Schuller
Friday, November 10. 2006
Beet Farmers
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Very interesting! I trust the resiliance of most farmers/ranchers. God bless them....and now I'll head to the grocery store. Make that double, on the sugar.
#1
Bonita
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2006-11-10 13:18
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What you've written makes me feel sick at heart for these folks. I hope it will work out better for them than it currently appears!
#2
Genevieve
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2006-11-10 19:42
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I really feel sorry for these beet farmers. Crop insurance is better than nothing, but it doesn't really take the place of getting a crop. We had the adjuster here yesterday because our corn is a disaster. The check we will get will pay less than 1/4 of the cost of the seed and fertilizer alone. We will be buying corn all winter.
#3
Marianne
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2006-11-11 04:58
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This is a good year NOT to be raising sugar beets. The price of sugar was already inflated - the cane growers had their disaster last year. The farmers know better than to depend on crop insurance. I'd imagine that they have their fingers crossed for disaster payments from the USDA.
#4
moos
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2006-11-11 13:47
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