HELENA, Mont. - Operators of an eastern Montana sugar factory say they will meet with farmers over the next few weeks, seeking commitments that they will grow enough sugar beets to keep the factory running next year.

Farmers who rejected a proposed contract last week have now voted 75-55 for a two-year agreement clearing the way for discussions about farmers' planting intentions in 2009.

The contract with Minnesota-based American Crystal Sugar Co. and its Sidney Sugars operation establishes a price grid for beets that would be sold to the factory in Sidney, just west of the Montana-North Dakota line. Final prices received by growers will depend on the sugar content of their beets and on the sugar market, Sidney Sugars manager Steve Sing said Thursday. The agreement advanced Wednesday in voting by members of the MonDak Beet Growers Association establishes an increase of $1 per ton over the current base prices, Sing said.

Dozens of growers who have produced beets for Sidney Sugars will be contacted to discuss plans for next year, he said.

"We now have a contract, but that contract doesn't really get activated until we reach the set number of acres that American Crystal would want to run" the factory, said Terry Cayko, president of the growers association. "It has to be profitable for them."

Sidney Sugars wants assurance that beets will be grown on about 25,000 acres. Only about 15,000 acres are under contract for the beet harvest that will begin around Oct. 1.

Civic leaders in Sidney, a town of about 5,000 residents, describe the sugar factory built in 1925 as a cornerstone of the local economy and worry about the prospect of a shutdown for lack of beets.

Farmers eyeing strong prices for grain have been retreating from beet production and say that seeding crops such as wheat requires a smaller investment. Sugar prices have not changed much in the past 20 years. In just the past five years, however, the price of Montana wheat has roughly tripled.

Farmers also find grain crops less labor intensive, which appeals to them as the Sidney area deals with a worker shortage attributed partly to the regional oil boom. Laborers can get $22 to $25 an hour in the oil industry, considerably more than farmers typically pay for help.

"Everybody's busy looking for people who want to drive a beet truck for a couple of weeks," said Jeremy Norby, a grower and MonDak's secretary.