Table 11--U.S. Sugarbeets: Number of factories, slicing capacity, beets received, beets sliced, sugar production, and extraction rate 17 Data for 1970-78 Include one factory that produced sugar from molasses, but not directly from sugarbeets. Sources: ASCS 1970-1975; ERS and MASS since 1975. 53 STATEMENT OF DONALD BERNHARDT, AGRICULTURE MANAGER, THE WESTERN SUGAR COMPANY, BILLINGS, MONTANA RELATING TO THE UNITED STATES SUGAR INDUSTRY AND THE UNITED STATES SUGAR PROGRAM. Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee: My name is Donald Bernhardt, Agriculture Manager of The Western Sugar Company, Billings, Montana. The Western Sugar Company owns and operates seven beet sugar refineries in the States of Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. I want to thank you for the opportunity to appear before your Committee and especially for bringing the Hearings to the local areas where the commodities are produced and the livelihoods of so many are directly affected by agriculture and the processing of agricultural products. Your presence here today also reinforces the belief of Montanans; that Legislation which as such a significant impact on the State of Montana is written and implemented by elected officials of the United States, and not some bureaucrat in Brussels who has little or no interest in the American Agricultural Community. Due to The domestic sugar program probably has a greater impact on Montana than the other sugar producing states in America. our climate and our relatively short growing season, Montana does not have the option of a number of alternative crops that some of the other beet producing areas enjoy. In our beet producing area, Western Sugar contracts for approximately 30,000 acres of sugarbeets with 263 growers. About |