11/01/06 Grower likes Roundup Ready beets

Duane Grant and three other Magic Valley farmers have put 250 acres of Roundup Ready sugar beets into a potato cellar for storage. Rupert grower Duane Grant grew the Roundup beets next to his conventional beets, both had good spring emergence. GRANT "We traditionally apply three to four, sometimes five applications of herbicide to traditional beets to control weeds. We applied two applications of Roundup on the Roundup beets, never slowed down in their growth. They simply continued to grow vigorously right through the herbicide application weed control period." Grant says he ended up with an earlier canopy, a much more uniform stand and a healthy, more vigorous field. There will be a technology fee for 2007-08 and would cost an average Idaho grower about 50 dollars per acre. GRANT "I think we'll easily recover that investment just in savings in herbicide costs, in passes through the field. We won't have to use hand labor to control the weeds." Grant and the other growers are now waiting to see the yield and sugar content of the bio-tech beets and the traditional crop. All beets in south-central Idaho should be harvested by the end of this week. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott