SIDNEY — Nearly two years after American Crystal Sugar Co. shut down the Sidney Sugars factory, farmers in the area are still getting accustomed to the new normal.
The factory had been deeply rooted in Eastern Montana since 1925 but was closed down in April of 2023, which forced layoffs of hundreds and left longtime beet farmers reeling.
“To Sidney itself, it was terrible. You lost all the jobs, you lost the tax base. And for the farmers it was a big hit, too,” said third-generation farmer, Don Steinbeisser, Jr. “It was a good way to make a living. You know, we were good at it and everybody knew how to do it.”
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Steinbeisser had stopped growing beets before the factory closed.
“We quit raising beets one year before the factory closed. It took about two years to three years to get financially different because you're used to beet checks coming in and now, we don't have that,” Steinbeisser said. "We were feeding cattle before, so we kind of just started feeding more cattle.”
The Sidney Sugars factory was sold in an auction this summer, but what it will become is still unknown.
"It's owned by a person in Sidney right now. He bought it at the auction and they're selling stuff like the lime and everything that's movable off the place," Steinbeisser said. "It won't be a sugar factory, but it'll be like a seed, like canola processing or camelina or some kind of oil seed crushing crop. Maybe something that ends up having a seed-crushing plant and an ethanol plant tied together."
Steinbeisser said no one in the area still grows beets, other than the leftover seeds they had to feed cattle now.
Everyone has had to start growing different crops.
“Even the soybeans and grain corn are relatively new crops for around here,” said fourth-generation farmer Sarah Degn.
Degn's family had grown sugar beets since 1925 but continuing to grow them now wouldn't be profitable with the price to haul to the nearest factory in Billings.
“You're not only losing a local market and a steady stream of income, but you're losing some of your family history at the same time,” Degn said. "Sugar beets are really heavy… But also they (other factories) can just barely process what the growers in those areas are doing.”
Degn now drives a combine during harvest, and the once-used beet diggers sit in the "junkyard" on a hill at the family farm.
Moving the equipment wasn't an easy day for Degn.
“It was a sad day. I actually was kind of emotional and it was worse than I thought it was going to be. Like that was the final nail in the coffin, even though I knew we weren't growing them,” Degn said. “There's always hope. It's just trying to find the thing that fits for everybody.”
Degn has signed up to be a substitute teacher and has picked up "odd jobs" for other companies trying to continue making ends meet. She said she sees many old factory workers doing the same.
“They're working in gas stations and restaurants and just trying to get by hoping that something better comes up,” she said. “That's all we've ever done here is grow sugar beets.”
Now, everyone is getting used to the new normal, learning the ways of new crops and continuing on as farmers have done for centuries.
“It was a good life, but this will be too,” Steinbeisser said.
