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American Crystal Sugar Ag Notes
6.18.2009 -- 525 - Root Maggots - Latest Arrival Ever
The very cold winter and much below normal Growing Degree Days for May and June indicate a very late arrival of root maggots in 2009 beet fields. Dr. Mark Boetel, NDSU Sugarbeet Entomologist is forecasting peak fly levels may arrive the last week of June or early July.
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5.22.2009 -- 524 - Weed Control Easier - Pitfalls Remain
The acreage planted to Roundup Ready® sugarbeets in 2009 will exceed 90%. Use of glyphosate resistant beets certainly makes many aspects of weed control in sugarbeets much easier. Delayed planting of all crops this spring will result in need to control weeds in all crops simultaneously increasing demands on grower’s time. Many sugarbeet fields were not sprayed on time in 2008 resulting in yield loss due to crop competition.
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4.28.2009 -- 523 - Grower Cost Benchmarking
The Grower Cost Benchmarking program completed its sixth year in 2008. Costs of production continue to escalate at an alarming rate. Breakeven yields are approaching 20 tons per acre or more. It's critical to know exactly how much production costs are per acre and return per acre on every field. Here is what some of your fellow growers say has been the value of participation in the Grower Cost Benchmarking program.
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4.13.2009 -- 522 - 2009 Flood
Mother Nature seems to want to stay in winter mode much longer than many of us would like this year. Snow is still melting, rivers are high and fields remain wet. All signs point to a spring of intense activity squeezed into a short time period. Timely field preparation, fertilizer application, planting, cover crop use and pesticide management become especially important in a shorter growing season.
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3.12.2009 -- 521 - Rhizoctonia Threat Increasing
Root diseases pose a serious threat to greater acreages in the RRV each year. Rhizoctonia has always been present in nearly every field. In spite of widespread incidence of Rhizoctonia its severity and threat to crop profitability was low until recent years. In spite of this threat, growers have many tools available to manage Rhizoctonia quite effectively.
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2.23.2009 -- 520 - Planting Capability Worth $5,000 Per Hour
Many factors throughout a growing season impact crop yield and quality we sometimes overlook the most important ones. The two factors most influencing crop profitability are planting date and achieving high plant populations. Figure 1 shows a 16 day delay in planting date resulted in $47,000 less revenue in side-by-side fields. Assuming a grower can plant 20 acres per hour the value per hour with a 24 row planter to complete planting on May 7 versus May 23 was over $5,800/hour.
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1.23.2009 -- 519 - Wet Fall = Spring Challenges?
Wet fall conditions and above average snowfall have already created some production problems that growers will have to manage this spring. Significant amounts of snowfall the remainder of the winter and early spring rains could add to the challenges. Choosing production strategies that enable early planting and excellent stand establishment may be more important than ever in 2009.
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12.22.2008 -- 518 - Food Safety and Pesticide Use
The American Crystal Sugar Company Board at their November 2008 meeting approved the "Policy Providing For The Destruction of Sugarbeet Acreage Due to The Presence of Misapplied Chemicals."
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11.26.2008 -- 517 - Future Big Crops to Be Expected
Exceptional crop yields and quality are becoming routine and should no longer be considered the exception today. The last three crops had 25.4, 23.5 and 25.4 tons per acre for yields. Just 5 years ago most people would have said this was impossible.
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10.30.2008 -- 516 - Variety Approval Policy
AMERICAN CRYSTAL SUGAR COMPANY'S VARIETY APPROVAL POLICY has been established to attempt to provide a list of approved varieties that maximize your on-farm profit. Changes to approval standards are implemented as necessary to meet new challenges confronting the industry.
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