Host farm for ASBG Harvest Tour nears 100-year milestone

By Cal Braid
Taber Times
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

O

n Oct. 14, the Alberta Sugar Beet Growers hosted its annual Harvest Tour at President Gary Tokariuk’s farm northeast of Lethbridge. After meeting in Taber, a couple of dozen attendees climbed aboard a school bus that shuttled them to the farm for an in-field exploration of homegrown southern Alberta sugar.

 Farm machinery moved through a sugar beet field which was in mid-harvest, and while acres of plants still stood green and leafy, there were wide swaths that had been defoliated, leaving the tops of the sturdy root vegetable poking up above the soil. Tokariuk talked to the group about the farm’s history, practices, and the value of a sugar beet crop, which is processed at Lantic Inc. in Taber.

 The Tokariuk family farm has been in operation since 1928 and is preparing for the fourth generation to take over as it nears the century mark. Gary Tokariuk is wrapping up his term as ASBG president, and after 40 years of overseeing the farm he is ready to hand it off to a fourth generation.

 A US-instigated trade war resulted in Coca Cola switching to cane sugar and that, coupled with handling limitations at Lantic, led to a 17 per cent reduction in acres for this year’s growing season.

 The farm’s rotation includes sugar beets, hard red spring wheat, potatoes, and occasionally dried peas and barley, depending on water availability. This year and last, rains have fallen at opportune moments and relieved farmers of the stress of managing the irrigation district’s water allocation of nine inches in 2024 and 12 inches in 2025. A sugar beet crop can only thrive if given close to 20 inches of water.

 “When you have 12 inches of allocation, and you need 20 inches of moisture, and it’s a dry year, what do you do to make sure that you try to get to those crops that don’t take as much water?” Tokariuk asked, before answering the question.

 “We can move water around. It’s field wide, is what they call it,” he said about water allocation. “So you can move your water around. Potato guys also buy water. They buy allocation from people that don’t use all the water. So it’s just moving water to make it work. Like, a wheat crop won’t take as much – we’re heavy clay soils here – so our water goes in and it doesn’t go anywhere.”

 He said south of Taber near Chin, the soil gets sandy, and “you have to be very careful with your allocation not to lose it to the sand.” The density of clay soil creates water retention, while sandy soils are more ‘porous’ and allow water to flow quickly down and through it.

 The value of a sugar beet is in its extractable sugar, which is processed and refined for consumption. Tokariuk said maximizing the sugar content of a beet crop is not yet an exact science. In 2024, the beets were tested and found to have a 20 per cent sugar content with 18 per cent extractable. In 2025, the beets are showing a 17 per cent sugar content with 15 per cent extractable.

 “And we did the same thing,” he said, comparing how he managed the crop in back-to-back years.

 On the morning of the tour, Tokariuk said his family was well into their harvest and would have it wrapped up within five or six days. Between the family-owned and rented trucks, the beets are loaded directly from the harvester to the truck, then delivered to the piling grounds where they are given the once-over for quality control.

 Tokariuk’s easygoing style made the tour an enjoyable learning experience, but he was serious when he urged the group to spread the word about buying local Lantic/Rogers sugar – identifiable by the number 22 stamped on the packaging, usually near the bar code. The number is the stamp that certifies it as 100 per cent Canadian beet sugar grown in southern Alberta and processed in Taber. The 22 is part of the lot number that identifies the production location, differentiating it from cane sugar products that might come from other facilities like Vancouver.

 The take-home message: Buy Rogers 22 and skip the Redpath.