12/04/06 Managing sugarbeets

Amalgamated Sugar has millions of sugar beets sitting at 70 different sites in southern Idaho for processing this winter at plants in Paul, Twin Falls and Nampa. Amalgamated's Vic Jaro says they must manage the piles and they do that by using a plane and infrared equipment. JARO "Looking for spots that might be a little warmer than others which may be indicative of a spot that is starting to not store as well." He gets back pictures of the storage piles and the color contrast shows if heat is developing. The flights are at night, just before sunrise or on cloudy days. JARO "So you're not getting the impact of the sun on the pile or you do it under very cloudy conditions." They take the outside sugabeets that have been exposed to the heat or very cold and get them into the processing plant first. They did an aerial survey in mid-November, they'll be doing it again this week and they'll do it every two weeks until the beets are gone. JARO "It really allows us to keep very close tabs on the piles and the last time they flew it indicated that the piles were storing very well. There were no major areas of concern and that's where you want to be." Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott