Crop Profile for Sugar Beets in Oregon

Prepared: July 1, 1999
Revised: September 7, 1999

• Oregon farmers grow 1.6% of the nation’s sugar beets, placing Oregon tenth nationally in sugar beet production.
• Statewide, growers harvest 18,002 acres of sugar beets that produce 413,000 tons of produce valued at $25,435,000. Klamath Basin farmers work 8,000 acres of the state’s total and produce 16–24 tons per acre.
• Sugar beets in south central Oregon, which includes the Klamath Basin, cost $1,076.96 per acre to produce in 1995. Current production costs in the Klamath Basin range from $700–800 per acre (without figuring in the cost of the land).
• Klamath Basin growers rail ship sugar beets to the Spreckels Sugar Company processing facility in Woodland, California.

Production Regions

This report focuses on sugar beets grown in the Klamath Basin. For information on most of the other Oregon regions, see the Idaho Sugar Beet Profile (10).

Central Oregon farmers in Jefferson and Crook counties grow about 4,000 acres of sugar beets. Climate conditions in those counties are similar to conditions in the Klamath Basin (11).

The Klamath Basin is a new sugar beet growing region in Oregon. After several attempts at establishing the crop, commercial production in 1990 was 1,000 acres. Today, the sugar company limits its contracting to 8,000 acres (6, 5).

Oregon’s Klamath Basin has the potential to support over 20,000 acres of high-quality sugar beets, but the consolidation of Holly Sugar and Spreckels Sugar Company as well as the closing of the Hamilton City plant have reduced the Basin’s planted crop to 8,000 acres (7).

Sugar beets, which grow well in sandy loam soils, need irrigation (10).

A long growing season produces maximum yields. Growers plant as early in the spring as they can work the soil and use mechanical harvesters to harvest crops as late as possible before the ground freezes (12).

The preponderance of sunny days, warm daytime temperatures, and cool nights in the Klamath Basin produce beets with a high sugar content and few diseases (6).

Growers set a national record in 1992 by producing 21 tons of beets per acre with 18.5% sugar. 1994 was an even better year with 24 tons per acre with 18.8% sugar (7).

Flea beetles are the only economically important insect pest in the region (6).

Chemical Controls:
Control options for insects and mites include seed treatment, soil-applied insecticides, and foliar-applied insecticides (6).

Sugar beet growers use the insecticides aldicarb (Temik), carbaryl (Sevin), imidacloprid (Gaucho), methyl parathion (Metacide and others), and methomyl (Lannate) to control flea beetles in sugar beets. Farmers need to pay special attention to residues on beet tops that may be used for animal feed (9, 13).

For more details on insect control in Oregon sugar beets, see the 1999 PNW Insect Control Handbook, pages 99–102. (Go to http://eesc.orst.edu/agcomwebfile/edmat/ for ordering information.)

Alternatives:
The recent development of herbicide-resistant sugar beet varieties provides growers with new options for sugar beet weed control. Transgenic sugar beets that are tolerant to glyphosate (Roundup) and glufosinate (Finale) have the potential to greatly simplify and add flexibility to weed-control programs (7).

Oregon beet growers have avoided important disease problems during the short history of production in the region (6). Powdery mildew affects less than 2% of the crop (5).

Chemical controls:
Farmers control the limited outbreaks of powdery mildew with sulfur applications (7).

For more details on disease control in Oregon sugar beets, see the 1999 PNW Plant Disease Control Handbook, pages 276–280. (Go to http://eesc.orst.edu/agcomwebfile/ edmat/ for ordering information.)

Cyst nematodes have not affected local crops (6). However, root-knot nematodes invade about 2 % of the crop (5).

For more details on nematode control in Oregon potatoes, see the 1999 PNW Plant Disease Control Handbook, pages 240 - 241. (Go to http://eesc.orst.edu/agcomwebfile/ edmat/ for ordering information.)

In experiments with untreated fields, weed competition reduced beet yields from 20 to 8 tons per acre (14).

Effective weed management requires good stand establishment, cultivation, and chemical controls (7).

Chemical controls:
Growers use these herbicides to control weeds in sugar beets: cycloate (Roneet), ethofumesate (Nortron), glyphosate (Roundup), glufosinate (Finale), pyrazon (Pyramin), phenmedipham + desmedipham (Betamix), phenmedipham + desmedipham + ethofumesate (Betamix Progress), clopyralid (Stinger), triflusulfuron (Upbeet), clethodim (Prism), quizalofop (Assure), sethoxydim (Poast), EPTC (Eptam), and trifluralin (Treflan) (15, 7).

For more details on weed control in Oregon sugar beets, see the 1999 PNW Weed Control Handbook, pages 160 - 164. (Go to http://eesc.orst.edu/agcomwebfile/edmat/ for ordering information.)

Cultural controls:
In a controlled study, scientists allowed a crop to grow without using any weed control until harvest time, when they hand weeded (12 weeks after planting). The researchers noted a 50% yield loss and a 1.5% reduction in sugar content compared to crops that were chemically treated earlier in the season. This experiment was done to evaluate what no weed control would do to a crop (14).

Ben Goodwin, Executive Manager
California Beet Growers Association (CBGA)
Two West Swain Road
Stockton, CA 95207-4395
cbga1@juno.com

Kerry Locke
Klamath County Extension
3328 Vandenburg Road
Klamath Falls, OR 97603-3796
kerry.locke@orst.edu

Kenneth Rykbost
Klamath Experiment Station
6941 Washburn Way
Klamath Falls, OR 97603
Kenneth.Rykbost@orst.edu

John Watson
Spreckels Sugar Company
P.O. Box 2240
Woodland, CA 95776-2240
http://imperialholly.com/woodland.html

1. Crop Profile for Commodity in State. http://pestdata.ncsu.edu/CropProfiles/ instructions.html (accessed Feb 1999).

2. 1997 Oregon County and State Agricultural Estimates; Special Report 790; Oregon State University Extension Service: Corvallis, OR, revised July 1998.

3. California Beet Growers Association. http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/asga/cal.htm (accessed Feb 1999).

4. Enterprise Budget, Sugarbeets, South Central Region; EM 8593; Oregon State University Extension Service: Corvallis, OR, April 1995.

5. Goodwin, B. California Beet Growers Association, Stockton, CA. Personal communication, May 25, 1999.

6. Local Sugarbeet Production. http://www.orst.edu/dept/kes/sb-prod.htm (accessed Feb 1999), Klamath Experiment Station, Oregon State University Agricultural Research.

7. Locke, K. Klamath County Extension, Klamath Falls, OR. Personal communication, June 3, 1999.

8. Oregon's rank in the nation's agriculture: 1996. http://www.oda.state.or.us/ oass/bul0697.htm (accessed Oct 1998).

9. Rykbost, K. Klamath Experiment Station, Klamath Falls, OR. Personal communication, April 28, 29, 1999.

10. Crop Profile for Sugar Beets in Idaho (Partial acreages in Washington and Oregon). http://pestdata.ncsu.edu/CropProfiles/Detail.CFM?FactSheets__Record ID=54 (accessed Feb 1999).

11. Sugar Beet Production in Central Oregon. http://www.orst.edu/dept/coarc/sugar.htm (accessed Feb 1999), Central Oregon Agricultural Research Center.

12. Markle, G.M.; Baron, J.J.; Schneider, B.A. Food and Feed Crops of the United States, Second Edition; Meister Publishing Co.:Willoughby, OH, 1998.

13. Pacific Northwest Insect Control Handbook; Extension Services of Oregon State University, Washington State University, and the University of Idaho: Corvallis, OR, 1998.

14. Sugarbeet Research Summary. http://osu.orst.edu/dept/kes/sb-res.htm (accessed Feb 1999), Klamath Experiment Station, Oregon State University Agricultural Research.

15. Pacific Northwest Weed Control Handbook; Extension Services of Oregon State University, Washington State University, and the University of Idaho: Corvallis, OR, 1998.

Acknowledgements:
This document was prepared by P. Thomson, W. Parrott, and J. Jenkins, Agricultural Chemistry Extension, Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, Oregon State University. The information was reviewed by B. Goodwin, California Beet Growers; K. Locke, Klamath County Extension; and K. Rykbost, Klamath Experiment Station.