Sugar beet seed that has built-in resistance to the popular Roundup
herbicide is expected to be in widespread use next year, as governments and
sugar processors approve the biotech beets.
In the Red River Valley of North Dakota and Minnesota, American
Crystal Sugar Co. has decided to make the jump.

"It's a pretty major step," Crystal President David Berg said. "Here
at American Crystal, we believe biotechnology is the current wave that will
help feed the world."

The Worland, Wyo.-based Wyoming Sugar Co. planted about one-sixth of
its 12, 000 acres to Roundup Ready beets this year. Wahpeton, N.D.-based
Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative has announced tentative plans to move to
biotech seed.

"It's still not 100%," said Tom Knudsen, a co-op vice president for
agriculture. "(But) the reasons for making the decision are still valid. I
don't see anything that looks like it could be a cloud on the horizon."

Biotech seed harvest is beginning in Oregon, Knudsen said. Three
companies are expected to handle it in 2008, and the Crystal Seed brand also
will be available for American Crystal growers. Berg said he expects farmers
in the Red River Valley to have enough biotech seed to plant up to half of
their acreage.

Farmers who want to use the biotech seed must factor a technology fee
of about $60 per acre into their plans.

"What we're asking our shareholders to do is go in with a good healthy
look at their production costs," Berg said. "We have a database of what
(farmers) spend, and our numbers say if you're in the middle to lower half
in weed control costs, it probably would make sense to use conventional seed
and weed control."

Amenia farmer Bill Hejl, president of the Red River Valley Sugarbeet
Growers Association, said he expects to get more sugar per acre with biotech
beets. "I also think I'll probably spend less on herbicides, maybe less on
fertilizer next year, and less on cultivation," he said.

"It's something new, and a lot of sugar beet growers, a lot of my
neighbors are very excited, up and down the valley," Hejl said.

Sugar beet yields are particularly susceptible to weed pressure, with
some industry experts saying weeds can sap as much as 30% of a crop's yield.
Sugar beet fields are the only ones in the Red River Valley where people
still are occasionally employed to work up and down the rows, hoeing weeds.

"Field labor will be thing of the past," said Nick Sinner, executive
director of the sugar beet group.

Biotech beets also could reduce the need for what is known as "micro
rate" herbicide applications. The process involves smaller amounts of
chemical applied multiple times, to cut down on injury to the beets. That
requires more passes through the field, which burns more fuel and compacts
the soil, which then needs cultivation.

"Typically, a farmer might spray three or four times a year, but it
can be up to five," Sinner said. "With Roundup Ready (beets), we have more
of an opportunity to kill weeds without injury to the beets."

All countries that are major sugar beet markets, including the United
States, have approved the Roundup Ready beet variety. The European Union's
formal approval is pending, but the European Food Safety Authority said late
last year that "no risks to human and animal health were identified in
studies."

Molly Cline, senior director of global industry affairs with St.
Louis-based Monsanto Co. (MON), which developed Roundup Ready beets, said
recently that processor acceptance was the last step to making biotech beets
as widespread as genetically modified soybeans, corn and cotton.

"The sugar from genetically modified beets is chemically the same as
that grown from traditional beets, leaving no DNA trace from the
biotechnology process," Cline said. "As such, it requires no special
labeling in North America and in Japan."


[money.cnn.com]