FROM THE EDITOR A NOTE

BY JENNY SCHLECHT Sugarbeet Grower Magazine editor

When Agweek brought Sugarbeet Grower Magazine under our umbrella earlier this year, I felt like I was getting a chance to go back to my roots … my sugarbeet roots.

My earliest memory is of standing in a sugarbeet field, looking at the line of food my Grandma Marguerite had delivered for the harvesting crew. It’s a fuzzy memory, from more than three and a half decades ago, but it’s a reminder that sugarbeets were a part of my life long before I ever could have imagined myself working on a publication dedicated to the sugarbeet industry.

After that early memory are many others, far clearer in my mind. Helping irrigate the long rows. Helping hoe the rows, which then seemed even longer, in the days before Roundup Ready technologies. Riding in the truck with Dad or Grandpa Bob to take loads to the factory in town. Tossing up beets that had missed the box of the truck. Watching the crew clean the equipment every night. Taking sugarbeets into school for show and tell.

My family still farms in south central Montana, though sugarbeets left the rotation during my teenage years. I distinctly remember riding with Dad when he hauled his last load of beets into town. I’m in North Dakota now, and the sight of a field of sugarbeets in the Red River Valley never fails to take me back in some way to those early memories.

And now I’m excited to reacquaint myself with all things sugarbeets and help serve the growers and the industry around the continent.

Mike Spieker, who served previously as the editor of Sugarbeet Grower Magazine, has decided to focus on other career interests. We are happy for him and wish him the very best in his venture. I have taken over as editor, in addition to serving as editor of Agweek.

Our staff is committed to serving the needs of agriculture. In Sugarbeet Grower Magazine, we will strive to continue to provide the latest information you need on sugarbeet agronomy, technology and policy. We will introduce you to new techniques and ideas. We will put on display the personalities of the industry.

We also want you to know that our sugarbeet coverage is not relegated strictly to the pages of this magazine. At https://www.agweek.com/sugarbeet, you can catch up on the latest in sugarbeet news all year long.

Please reach out to me with ideas about topics you’d like to see covered. I’d also love to hear from you about your farm and your crops. We will continue the Photos from the Field feature in the magazine, so if you have any photos you’d like to see published, send them my way. You can reach me at jschlecht@ agweek.com.

Thank you for reading! I look forward to becoming part of the sugarbeet world once again.

EDITOR

The 2021 sugarbeet crop near Foxhome, Minn., shows potential for a healthy, 30-ton-per-acre yields, but cercospora leaf spot can quickly cut yields, reduce sugar content from 18% sugar down to 15%, and increase the processing costs of removing impurities.