Rural Montana factory closure disrupts local economy, farming community

John Yang:

Farming can be an uncertain endeavor at the mercy of weather, pests and blight, but another sometimes unexpected factor for farmers around the country, the business decisions at the companies they rely on.

Stan Parker of Montana PBS reports on how closing a processing plant in one small community is up ending the area's farmers and economy.

Stan Parker:

For 90 years and for generations, the Cayko family has grown sugar beets on their family farm here on the far western edge of North Dakota, just outside Fairview, Montana. But now, that's a thing of the past.

Adam Cayko, Fourth-Generation Sugar Beet Farmer:

Gave us some pride to say oh, yeah, I'm a sugar beet farmer, you know, as something that people didn't really hear very much.

Stan Parker:

In February, the beet processing facility and nearby Sidney, Montana announced it would close for good. Spelling the end of an era here on the lower Yellowstone River Valley, where for almost a century, sugar beets have been a fixture of the economy and the local identity.

No factory means no sugar beets. Trucking them is just too expensive to take them somewhere else. And efforts by locals to buy the plants were unsuccessful. After years of fraught, contract negotiations between owners and growers. The news wasn't a total surprise.

Jeff Bieber, Montana-Dakota Beet Growers Association President:

You know, there's anger at first, and then there's disappointment.

Stan Parker:

Jeff Bieber is the president of the Montana-Dakota Beet Growers Association. He farms with his son Justin, just down the road from the Cayko family

Jeff Bieber:

And they finally announced that they're actually going to close the plant move away from production of sugar beets in the valley. Here it goes to a level of disappointment and discouragement that having felt in a long time.

Stan Parker:

American Crystal Sugar Company, the nation's biggest sugar refiner, has owned Sidney sugars for roughly the last 20 years. The company declined our request for an interview, but in a statement said they had to close the plant because the farmers weren't willing to grow enough acres to keep the plant profitable. The growers say that's not the full story.

Jeff Bieber:

We did everything we could to keep Sidney Montana open. We took several cuts to our pay over the years, the farmers were willing to take those cuts to keep Sydney open and keep the option of growing beets in Sidney, Montana.

Stan Parker:

Bieber says the cuts just kept coming year after year.

Jeff Bieber:

They were taking money off of the table and to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. But that money wasn't staying in Sydney, Montana. And it wasn't being reinvested back into the plant to help them prove to us that they wanted to stay here.

Stan Parker:

The closure impacts not just the farming community, but also the City of Sidney, where the silos beet piles and steam plumes are baked into the community identity.

Mayor Rick Norby, Sidney, Montana:

There ain't much you can do about it. So corporate decision and crappy corporate decision, but that's just the way life works.

Stan Parker:

Rick Norby is the mayor of Sindey.

Rick Norby:

My biggest concerns employees, everybody that works there, you're part of their family and I still get treated that way today from working down there just a couple of years.

Stan Parker:

For decades, the beet plant is offered reliable good paying work.

Rick Norby:

It's always been a security a fall back on. Now, it's not here no more.

Stan Parker:

It was also a cornerstone of the local economy. Citing a 2012 study from North Dakota State University. Leslie Messer, who runs a local economic development nonprofit says that through property taxes and wages, Sidney sugars put more than $10 million annually into the local economy.

Leslie Messer, Richland Economic Development:

That was 120 jobs. So those were good paying jobs for the community.

Stan Parker:

Despite the loss of the factory, the farmers and this fertile valley will continue to produce.

Leslie Messer:

The one thing I can say about agriculture over the years is that that is the engine that always runs through the ebbs and tides of the oil and gas the egg has been the economic driver that keeps everything stable.

Stan Parker:

Now these family farms are embarking on a new challenge. And they'll tackle it the same way they've done for generations together.

Man:

My son has helped a lot that young mind of let's make it work let's figure out how to do it has helped the old dog and me start looking towards the future a little more.

Tim Cayko, Third-Generation Sugar Beet Farmer:

I was pretty set in my ways with beets around but it's going to be a change and I'm willing,

Stan Parker:

This year the Caykos will be trying their hand at corn and soybeans, as well as spring wheat which was already in their rotation.

Adam Cayko:

Changing over to some of these newer crops and different machinery and different farming methods in general is going to be kind of nerve wracking. That's especially for maybe the older generation.

Stan Parker:

As one chapter closes, another opens for the growers who are looking to pass down what was passed down to them for generations to come. For PBS News Weekend, I'm Stan Parker and your Fairview, Montana.