Klostermans prepare sugarbeet harvest equipment for pre-pile

WYNDMERE, N.D. – At the Klosterman farm, the fields of corn are tasseling despite smoke from Canadian wildfires that filled the skies the last week in July.

“The corn cobs have the silk out and then the tassels are out the top, so it’s pollinating and going into kernel fill,” said Carson Klosterman, who farms with his dad, Tom, and wife, Haley, who owns her own farm flower business, Wild Roots Farm. “As for harvest, the rule of thumb is like 60 days from tassel to maturity, and then however many days after that to dry down.”

The sunflowers are flourishing, with the heads facing the sun, glowing a brilliant yellow, and the sugarbeets are developing well out in the farm fields.

“We had the sunflowers sprayed last week with fungicide and insecticide, and now the sunflowers are in full bloom,” Carson said.

Carson was home for part of the week, having recently returned from corn meetings in Washington, D.C., and that meant jumping in the sprayer to control weeds in the soybean fields.

“While I was in DC, everyone (back home) was working on controlling weeds in soybeans. It seems like we’re always spraying soybeans. The waterhemp has been brutal this year,” he said. “It didn’t seem like the chemical totally killed it 10 days ago.”

In addition, the Klostermans took some chemical up to the aerial crop sprayer to spray another fungicide application on the sugarbeets.

“We did take some chemical to the airplane today (July 25) because next week we need to get the fungicide on the beets, and we have received constant rain,” Carson said.

Rain every day or so had been continual throughout July in several areas of the state, and Carson said they probably received about 4 inches over the past couple of weeks of month.

“They are talking more rain on Sunday (July 27),” he said.

Carson won’t be around for the fungicide spraying, as he leaves for Germany where KWS Seeds, a sugarbeet seed company, has its headquarters. KWS was founded in Klein Wanzleben, Germany.

“I’ll fly over to Germany with about 10 other sugarbeet growers from Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative (where Carson is a board member) and Michigan Sugar, and Haley is going to hang out in Kansas with all her family and the kids,” Carson said.

“We’re landing in Amsterdam and going to Hanover, Germany. From there, we’re flying home out of Munich, so we’ll start in the north and work our way south, seeing farm sites and sugar factories on the way, and fly home afterward,” he added.

After returning from Washington, D.C., Carson felt bullish about the things that were discussed.

“We heard good things, and I think they know what we need to do (for corn growers). So, I left with a little bit of optimism,” Carson said. “We had good visits. Brian Leier, president of the North Dakota Corn Growers Association, and I, were invited to a White House meeting with national ag and trade leaders.”

Ethanol and E-15, along with oil companies, were topics the officials discussed, including year-round E-15.

“We’ve heard a lot of that for many years, so hopefully they act on it, because that would be a good way to use up a lot of bushels that we have around here. Then there was the discussion of how oil and agriculture are in a better spot today than perhaps four or five years ago. So, maybe oil will be more motivated to get along here on E-15,” Carson said.

They heard a presentation from Judge Stephen Alexander Vaden, a former USDA lawyer, who was just appointed to be USDA deputy secretary. Turner Bridgforth, EPA’s senior advisor for Agricultural Rural Affairs, explained how EPA is trying to speed things up on new chemicals.

“Then we had some U.S. trade representatives, Dr. Julie Callahan, who was just appointed as chief ag negotiator at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and Dr. Heidi Overton, Chief Policy officer and director at the Center for a Healthy America at America First Policy Institute, talk to us on trade,” he said.

They also met with North Dakota’s U.S. congressional representatives and staffers, Sen. John Hoeven, Rep. Julie Fedorchak, and a staff member from Rep. Kevin Kramer’s office.

“Rep. Fedorchak is on the biofuels committee, so hopefully she will get E-15 across the finish line,” he said.

They also met with staff members at the Department of Interior.

“We were hoping to see Sec. Doug Burgum (former North Dakota governor), but he was in an airplane that day, so we met with Kevin Lilly, acting assistant secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, along with five others. It was a big deal to us because one of the things that North Dakota is working on are easements for wetlands and wet spots,” he said.

Apparently, in the 1960s and 1970s, the agency came in and purchased those wetlands. But the wetlands have expanded, and farmers want to improve these wetlands now.

“The problem is, now folks want to improve that property and use tools like drain tile, and they do understand that U.S. Fish and Wildlife and Parks possibly owns this wetland or that spot. But Fish and Wildlife are drawing these big setbacks and saying essentially, ‘You can’t do anything within so many feet of this area,’” Carson said.

The wetland areas and wet spots they bought a long time ago have taken up more of the farmers’ land, but the agency did generate money in times when the farm economy was tough. At the time, there weren’t as many tools to improve wetlands as exist today,” he said. 

Carson said the biggest takeaway from the meeting was that the agency bought a certain number of acres when the deal was done, but now they are trying to control many more acres with unsound setback distances when it comes to drain tile.

While Carson was at meetings away from the farm, the guys worked on equipment back in the shop.

In early August, there will be sugarbeet pre-pile, so the guys need to do maintenance on sugarbeet machines used in harvesting beets.

“We have sugarbeet equipment in the shop to get that ready for harvest,” Carson concluded.