Sugar Beet Harvest 2008

Roundup Ready Beets: The Rage

Middleton - Despite heavy weekend rains, Canyon County farmers are getting sugar beet fields ready for the 2008 harvest. There's a new buzz in beets this year, many growers planted roundup ready sugar beets for the first time and those that didn't-- wished they had.

"The Roundup fields look a lot better," said farmer Sid Freeman. "They're more expensive, but workers are getting harder to find, bottomline it's less hassle and a lot less work."

In some Canyon County fields this time of year weeds are high and they're more than an eyesore, they lower crop yields and cost farmers thousands in labor costs.

"With those weeds you can lose three, four-ton less per acre," adds Freeman.

Controlling weeds is a farmers nightmare because the chemicals that kill weeds also can kill beets. Throughout the season farmers have to carefully apply low doses of herbicide twice a month and they walk a tightrope protecting the beets. What herbicide can't kill, migrant workers are hired at a premium to do the rest.

Roundup ready beets are genetically modified and immune to most weeds. But some weeds still get through the immunity gauntlet but are now easily handled without fear of hurting beets.

Sugar industry representatives say that just over half of the sugar beets planted this year were Roundup Ready created by Monsanto. They say farmers who used the product have a demonstrated and clear-cut edge in weed control.

And those that planted GMO beets this year say there's far less cultivation, not as many passes in the field with fewer sprayings. Most conventional beets have a minimum four applications of spray per season while roundup has just two applications. With fewer trips across the field farmers save diesel.

But while producers have saved cash on labor and fuel doesn't mean the GMO beets are cheaper to grow.
Monsanto charges a technology fee --a whopping $60 per acre - which offsets most of the savings.

Field test thus far show that GMO beets overall don't produce higher yields than traditional varieties. But that should change as the GMO seed is improved over the next couple of years.

Industry officials say next year at least 90 percent of sugar beets will be Roundup Ready. That means seed companies will stop producing traditional seed within the next three years. Sid Freeman says he's already felt the impact of Roundup, "There's more labor available out there, the ball is back in our court and that's good for this year but we don't know where its all headed."