Beet growers and Great Western agree on terms of 1968 contract

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Joint release of The Mountain States Beet Growers Marketing Association of Colorado and Kansas, Richard W. Blake, secretary, Greeley (Tel. 352-6875), and The Great We~tern Sugar Company, Robert J, Fisher, vice president, Denver (Tel. 534-2182)

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Not to be released until Aug, 16 at 2:00 p.m.

BEET GROWERS AND GREAT WESTERN AGREE ON TERMS OF 1968 CONTRACT

Greeley, Colo,, Aug. 16 Agreement on the basic terms of the 1968 beet purchase contract between Colorado and Kansas growers and The Great Western Sugar Company was jointly announced today.

The contract includes the "New York raw-price principle," long urged by growers, and they joined Company spokesmen in forecasting highest beet returns to growers in the history of the Rocky Mountain area.

Roy "Ole" Johnson, of Eaton, president of The Mountain States Beet Growers Marketing Association of Colorado and Kansas, called the agreement "far-reaching and the best contract ever negotiated in the United States from the growers' viewpoint."

Robert J. Fisher, Great Western vice president, said: "If recent sugar market trends continue into 1968 and 1969, the new contract will pay growers for beets of average sugar content the highest returns per ton ever realized."

Fisher explained that over the past seven years the average ton of beets in the entire Company area, covering the states of Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Kansas, and Nebraska, contained about 335 pounds of sugar at the time of delivery.

That beets of such content "can very easily return

$1.

50 to

$1.

75 per ton higher than 1966 beets," the latest crop on which payment is nearing

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-Johnson said market trends warranted expectation Company-wide of returns of "about

$17,75

per ton of

1968

average content beets, including Sugar Act payments, compared with about

$16.00

for

1966

and possibly

$17,00

for

1967."

The

1968

contract contains for the first time a provision sought by growers over the past two years to guarantee that the beet sugar net selling price, to b~ used for Company settlement with the growers, will not be less than a specified margin over the price of raw cane sugar at New York. The contract also provides that such beet sugar settlement price will not exceed a specified margin over the raw price.

Johnson and Fisher said that when and how this innovation will work will be spelled out precisely in the contract and expressed the opinion that it may set a nationwide pattern for beet contracts.

Johnson said this August agreement was the earliest on record for this area and will enable grower associations and the Company to work together in obtaining the optimum level of acreage to be planted next spring.

"Of far-reaching significance to beet growers and Great Western," Johnson said, is an "agreement reached to establish a joint grower/Company research committee to seek greater sugar production per acre at a lower cost to the grower." Fisher said that "new chemicals, new techniques, and new machines offer a real opportunity to all of us" and that "the good job we have done in these areas and in seed improvement will continue and with better understanding through the joint committee."

Kish Otsuka, of Sedgewick, Colorado, a director of the Association, will head the research committee member.ship for the Mountain States growers

organization. Great Western's team will be headed by Phillip B. Smith, internationally recognized sugarbeet scientist and Company director of

3

-agricultural development.

Today's announcement of the basic contract settlement came after a

series of negotiations which began in April.

Principal spokesman for the growers at most of the contract sessions was Richard W. Blake, of Greeley, secretary of The Mountain States Beet Growers Marketing Association of Colorado and Kansas.

Grower leaders, in addition to Johnson and Blake, who negotiated the contract with Fisher and Fred G. Holmes, Great Western vice president, agricul-tural administration, were Howard Hart, Powell, Wyoming; Ishmael Yost, Billings, Montana; and Kenneth Carpenter, Lyman, Nebraska.

Grower and Company spokesmen-said that a few items have yet to be worked out, but that these do not affect the basic contract agreement.