town profiles
Newell County communities
Tilley ◗ Population (2016): 364
◗ Land Area: 0.70 km2 ◗ Major Industries: Agriculture, Oil and Gas ◗ Largest Employer: Grasslands Public Schools ◗ Unincorporated: ◗ Major Tourist Attractions: Tilley Campground, Tillebrook Provincial Park
Towns Nearby Bassano
◗ Population (2016): 1,206 ◗ Land Area: 5.22 km2 ◗ Major Industries: Agriculture ◗ Largest Employer: Gentherm Global Power ◗ Mayor: Tom Rose ◗ Incorporated: 1911 ◗ Major Tourist Attractions: Crawling Valley Reservoir, ◗ Bassano Dam, Bassano Rodeo ◗ Motto: “Best in the West by a damsite”
Rosemary
◗ Population (2016): 396 ◗ Land Area: 0.59 km2 ◗ Major Industries: Retail ◗ Largest Employer: Grasslands Public Schools ◗ Mayor: Don Gibb ◗ Incorporated: 1951
◗ Major Tourist Attractions: Canada Day, Rosemary Campground
◗ Motto: “Land of Promise” Duchess 32
◗ Population (2016):1,085 ◗ Land Area: 1.96 km2 ◗ Major Industries: Agriculture ◗ Largest Employer: Alberta Prairie Meats ◗ Mayor: Bruce Snape ◗ Incorporated: 1921 ◗ Major Tourist Attractions: Dinosaur Provincial Park ◗ Motto: “Where the Swan Sits”
Ron Wikkerink waits to unload his farm's digger. To get the best price for beets, it is all about sugar content.
TIM KALINOWSKI B
eet farmers fill a very specific niche in agriculture in Alberta. With a farming industry increasingly moving into specialty crops to increase profits for producers, sugar beets might just be the ultimate specialty crop.
Ron Wikkerink of Wikkerink Farms Ltd. farms with his brothers Steve and Dan just north of Bow Island. The Wikkerinks have been growing beets as part of their crop rotation for over 40 years. Unlike other types of crops grown to be marketed to buyers across North America, Wikkerink Farms only has one buyer for it beets—Lantic Sugar, formerly known as Roger’s, in Taber, AB. A new contract between the company and local beet farmers has to be renegotiated every few years; a fact which can add an element of uncertainty to the Wikkerink family’s farm operations.
“Lantic is the only one that contracts sugar beets. It is a little bit tricky to make a contract every couple of years because there is not a lot of competition. So there is no leverage (on Lantic) as far as that goes. But it is a benefit for them for us to grow our beets too. As long as we are making money and they are making money everyone can find some middle ground where everyone is happy. Or pretty close to happy, anyways,” says Wikkerink with a chuckle.
Unlike most crops which get priced on both quality and volume produced, there is only one standard which applies to sugar beets.
“The contract is based on sugar content. The more sugar you have in your beets the more you get paid,” Wikkerink states flatly.
So how do you ensure a high level of sugar content in your beets? It comes down to your farming practices as well as your luck, says Wikkerink.
“You need a really thick stand; that’s one thing. It almost seems to a certain extent the thicker the better. The more you can get into a row generally the sugar content is better. Fertility plays a huge part too. If you have high nitrogen levels than that is generally bad for the sugar content. The beets almost have to deplete the nitrogen completely out of the soil to get really good sugar content. You plant the seeds in rows with a crop planter. The rows are 22 inches apart, and we plant each seed five and a half inches apart. That’s ideal. They are a little finicky to get going because they are not a tough plant. We try to seed them quite shallow; about an inch is as deep as you want to plant them. They also need a lot of moisture to germinate.”
Wikkerink says his biggest enemy is wind; especially early in the growing cycle before the beets have had a chance to take hold.
“The wind can be quite a challenge when you are growing beets,” confirms Wikkerink. “You get a strong wind blowing early in the growing cycle and it sucks the moisture out and can blow the seed away. A lot of people used to plough when planting beets. We don’t plough anymore and we leave quite a bit of trash on top so it’s not quite as much of an issue. And once they are started, it’s pretty tough to kill them.”
Once the beets are established even a major hailstorm will probably not kill the plants completely.
“It’s a root crop, so I know from our perspective it does kind
Sugar beets: The ultimate prairie specialty crop
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