Growers may be able to dig more in a few daysWestern Sugar Cooperative representatives were checking sugar beet fields in Wyoming and Montana on Monday, hoping for signs that beets frozen in early October were doing better.“We haven't seen a significant amount of healing,” said Ric Rodriguez on Monday. “There's a lot of damaged beets, but we're still hoping to find some good ones.”

Rodriguez, who farms beets on Heart Mountain, is vice chairman of the Western Sugar board of directors. He said other representatives were looking at fields in Montana.

As of Thursday, the Lovell district harvest was about 50 percent complete, Rodriguez said. Montana was “a little ahead” and the Colorado and Nebraska harvest was about 80 percent complete, he said.

Western Sugar growers are digging under a quota system, but cooperative officials allowed them to dig extra about 10 days ago.

Rodriguez said enough beets are on the ground to run the Lovell factory until Nov. 13. If the weather cooperates, growers may be able to start digging a few days ahead of that date, he said.

Some Western Sugar growers are delivering beets that were sold to Wyoming Sugar through an agreement between the two companies. Cal Jones, chief executive officer of Wyoming Sugar, said Monday that his company's harvest is 97 percent complete. The Western Sugar beets coming in now are processing well, he said.

“It's running smoothly at this point,” he said.

Klodette Stroh, national sugar chairwoman of Women in Farm Economics, said she is tracking the disaster declaration signed by Gov. Dave Freudenthal and forwarded to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“It's a sad situation,” she said. “A lot of farmers call me. I just do the best I can for them.”

The potential beet loss could have severe economic effects, she said. But the price of sugar is up after crop losses in India and China and she hopes what sugar is harvested will go for a good price.