10 CapitalPress.com
November 4, 2016
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Idaho
Tractor Treat delights Idaho children
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
BLACKFOOT, Idaho —
Tractors with menacing fangs,
truck beds transformed into
graves and front-end loaders
with monstrous faces filled
the lot at Bingham County
Implement on Oct. 28.
Though the business spe-
cializes in John Deere, heavy
equipment from a host of com-
petitors was also displayed in
costume for the community’s
second Tractor Treat.
Blackfoot’s
community
Halloween event brings agri-
cultural businesses — and their
decorated equipment — togeth-
er for a night, exposing chil-
dren to agriculture while they
fill their bags with goodies.
Despite rainy weather, a large
crowd of children and their
families showed up, and many
participants had to restock their
treats.
“It’s fun to have fun with the
local people around here and let
them know we’re not just here
as a business, but we’re a part
of the community,” said Travis
Sessions, manager of Bingham
County Implement.
Another local equipment
dealer, Agri-Service, orga-
nized and hosted the first Trac-
A volunteer from Fastenal in
Blackfoot, Idaho, hands out
candy to children by a truck-bed
“grave” during Tractor Treat,
hosted Oct. 28 at Bingham
County Implement.
Photos by John O’Connell/Capital Press
Lyndee, left, and Eli Wilcox sit inside a toy John Deere Oct. 28 at Tractor Treat, hosted at Bingham
County Implement.
tor Treat last year. Julie Ann
Goodrich, an event organizer
with Agri-Service, said it filled
a void for local youths.
“(The Blackfoot Chamber
of Commerce) said usually
wards and churches do trick-
or-treating, but there’s nothing
community-wide,” Goodrich
said.
Goodrich said the event
will be hosted by a new par-
ticipant each year. She said 18
businesses or entities partici-
pated this year, doubling last
year’s participation.
“I think it’s neat that two
seemingly competing compa-
nies come together in a com-
munity like this,” Goodrich
said. “We brought our equip-
ment on their lot this year, and
they brought their equipment
onto our lot last year.”
Some of this year’s partici-
pants weren’t even in the agri-
cultural industry. For example,
the Blackfoot Police Depart-
ment and the Bingham County
Sheriff’s Office, along with its
Safe Kids Coalition, partici-
pated. The sheriff’s office dis-
played a Humvee.
“Any time youths represent
themselves in a community
event like this and law enforce-
ment can be a part of it, it’s a
great thing,” said Capt. Mark
Cowley, with the sheriff’s of-
fice.
Blackfoot High School agri-
cultural students volunteered as
crossing guards.
Participants contributed a
prize for a gift basket awarded
to the child with the best agri-
cultural-themed costume.
Wada Farms brought the
popular board game Candy
Land to life inside a toy haul-
er, filled with a trail of colorful
squares through large candy
canes and other sugary decora-
tions. A surprise ending awaited
children at the final destination,
where they were given potato
chips and Easy-Baker potatoes,
and a sign informed them, “Eat
potatoes, not candy.”
“We want everybody to be
healthy,” joked Rosa Jensen,
human resources director at
Wada Farms.
The restored antique pota-
to truck that the Wada family
used when it started the busi-
ness in 1943 was also dis-
played.
Mud bogs down harvest of a record sugar beet crop
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
John O’Connell/Capital Press
A front-end loader pulls a beet truck through a muddy field Oct. 27 at Foster Farms near Aberdeen, Idaho. Wet weather has delayed
harvest of a record crop, and has many Idaho growers worried about getting their sugar beets harvested in time.
we got 50.”
Foster said muddy equip-
ment has made a mess of rural
roads.
Despite the harvest head-
aches, Idaho growers are
certain their crop will break
records for both yield and per-
centage of sugar — assuming
they get it all dug.
Grant said growers compa-
ny-wide are harvesting about
39 tons per acre, up a ton from
last year’s crop, which also
set yield and sugar content
records.
This season, Grant said
beet loads have consistently
come in with 19 percent sugar.
“That’s unheard of. Last
year if we saw days in the 18
percent range, we were ecstat-
John O’Connell/Capital Press
Workers at Foster Farms near
Aberdeen, Idaho, seek to get
sugar beet harvesting equip-
ment bogged down by mud
working again.
ic,” Grant said.
Grant attributes the posi-
tive trend to Amalgamated’s
shift about five years ago
from managing for big yields
to managing crop nutrients for
higher sugar content.
Amalgamated encouraged
seed companies to prioritize
sugar over yield in breeding,
and Grant said the companies
released varieties for this sea-
son that were both high-yield-
ing and packed with sugar.
Grant also explained that
beets trigger sugar accumu-
lation over growth when they
begin to deplete nitrogen.
Growers have begun cutting
crop nitrogen about 30 days
before harvest.
“The default five years ago
was to manage for tonnage
and accept the sugar that you
got,” Grant said. “The con-
cept now is to manage for
sugar and accept the tonnage
you get.”
For the past couple of sea-
sons, Amalgamated has re-
quired growers to submit data
on how they managed their
crops, along with their re-
sults. The company produces
reports with the data demon-
strating the farming practices
of the top- and lowest-yield-
ing farms — essentially mak-
ing a “180,000-acre test plot”
of the company’s growing
base.
Recently, Foster has man-
aged his nitrogen carefully,
sampling soil on 2-acre grids
to develop variable-rate fertil-
izer prescriptions.
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
After falling significantly
the past two years, wheat pro-
duction in Idaho returned to
normal in 2016, largely due to
record yields.
Idaho wheat yields aver-
aged a record 91.3 bushels per
acre this year, beating the pre-
vious record of 85.5 bushels
set in 2004.
That resulted in Idaho
farmers producing 101.9 mil-
lion bushels of wheat in 2016,
up from 89.4 million bush-
els in 2015 and 93.7 million
bushels in 2014.
The 10-year average for
Idaho wheat production pri-
or to 2016 was 98.5 million
bushels.
“Production is up because
of the higher yields and yields
were up because we had fa-
vorable growing conditions
throughout the state,” said
Idaho Wheat Commission
Executive Director Blaine Ja-
cobson.
However, the increased
production has been offset
somewhat by low prices and
issues with low falling num-
ber test scores in Northern
Idaho, he added. The falling
number tests measure wheat
quality.
“About one-fourth of the
crop in Northern Idaho was
hit by low falling numbers
and that put a crimp in some
of the enthusiasm in Northern
Idaho,” he said.
Idaho farmers planted
1,180,000 acres of wheat
during the 2016 season, down
from 1,220,000 in 2015 and
1,271,000 in 2014. But 2016
yields were far ahead of the
past two years.
As a result, Idaho wheat
production reached its second
highest total in the past five
years, behind only 103.6 mil-
lion bushels in 2013. The deep
reduction in wheat production
in 2014 and 2015 were due in
part to monsoon-like rains that
hammered the 2014 crop.
“It’s taken awhile to really
get that behind us,” Jacobson
said.
But low prices have made
2016 somewhat bitter-sweet,
growers said.
“It’s good for our customers
to know they have a reliable
source of wheat out here and
quality is back to what they ex-
pect,” said Eastern Idaho farm-
er Gordon Gallup. However, as
a grower, “I’d just as soon have
less grain and a better price.”
In Northern Idaho, great
yields were offset by low pric-
es and the low falling number
scores.
“Where I’m at, we had ex-
cellent yields that were con-
siderably above average (and)
quality, other than the falling
numbers, was excellent,” said
Northern Idaho grower Joe
Anderson. “But we got low
prices to start with and the
low falling numbers really
clobbered us.”
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ABERDEEN, Idaho —
Amalgamated Sugar Co.
growers know they’ve raised
their best-ever beet crop, but
harvesting it has become a
muddy ordeal.
Duane Grant, a Rupert
grower and chairman of
Amalgamated’s parent co-
operative, Snake River Sug-
ar Co., estimated on Oct. 27
storms had already prolonged
harvest east of Glenn’s Fer-
ry by four days, and heavy
showers returned the follow-
ing day.
Grant called the string of
storms “concerning” and fears
the harvest could extend late
into November, which would
be unprecedented.
“It’s just a heightened risk
that beets could get frozen or
additional rain events could
push us even later,” Grant
said.
Grant also worries grow-
ers will deliver mud-covered
beets, which can’t “breathe”
and tend to decompose, forc-
ing the company to process
them as quickly as possible.
Aberdeen grower Bruce
Foster confirmed his beets
have been “coming in mud-
dy.”
Muddy fields have also
made his harvest a nightmare.
During a window before the
next storm, Foster used trac-
tors and front-end loaders to
pull his beet trucks through
the mucky soil. He idled his
12-row beet harvesters, which
sank too deep into the mud, in
favor of six-row harvesters.
“Our efficiency is a third
of where we were prior to all
of this rain,” Foster said. “Our
farm usually digs over 200
truckloads per day. Yesterday,
Idaho wheat
production
rebounds
because of
record yields
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