When people ask "What do you farm?" I reply "Wheat, barley, soybeans, edible beans, corn, and sugarbeets." I get a blank stare, and they ask "Sugarbeets? Do you mean sugarcane?" Few consumers realize the bag of sugar on the shelf may come from sugarbeets, not sugarcane.
Starting October 1 every year, this Red River Valley turns into chaos central. There are 5 factories for American Crystal Sugar, plus another factory for Minn-Dak growers, and sugarbeet harvest runs 24 hours a day. My quiet county road becomes a steady stream of trucks, bringing in the harvest. It's a chaotic time, and in a perfect world, harvest is over in 2 weeks, but leave it to Mother Nature to throw in some heat, cold, rain or snow. In 2012, our farm tried harvesting sugarbeets until just before Thanksgiving, and we finally threw in the towel and left the sugarbeets in the ground. It snowed October 2, and we battled mud for the rest of harvest.
Starting October 1 every year, this Red River Valley turns into chaos central. There are 5 factories for American Crystal Sugar, plus another factory for Minn-Dak growers, and sugarbeet harvest runs 24 hours a day. My quiet county road becomes a steady stream of trucks, bringing in the harvest. It's a chaotic time, and in a perfect world, harvest is over in 2 weeks, but leave it to Mother Nature to throw in some heat, cold, rain or snow. In 2012, our farm tried harvesting sugarbeets until just before Thanksgiving, and we finally threw in the towel and left the sugarbeets in the ground. It snowed October 2, and we battled mud for the rest of harvest.
We'll skip the planting and raising part, and move right into harvest. This is a rotobeeter. Officially called a "defoliator" because you chop off the green tops so just the sugarbeet underground is left. We want the green tops to stay in the field for the soil.
After the beets have been "topped" (another word for rotobeeted) the harvester comes along, and picks the beets out of the ground and dumps them into trucks. Harvester size can run from 6 row to 12 row.
It rained so the fields are muddy. That means we bring out the Safe-T-Pull. When the trucks are full and heavy, they can't make it out of the field so along comes the big 4WD tractor with a metal pull bar behind it. All of our trucks have a special hitch on the front, and the tractor helps the truck make it out of the field. This used to be done with a chain and you'd have to hop in and out of the tractor to hook and unhook the chain. Now it can be done from inside the cab.
Another muddy field alternative is the beet cart which is similar to a grain cart. The harvester unloads into the cart instead of the trucks. The cart can travel in the field much easier than the trucks. The biggest problem with the Safe-T-Pull and beet cart is that they require another person to run them, and labor is already extremely tight during harvest.
Finally, those trucks from the field haul the beets to numerous "piling stations" all over the valley. The beets are stored in these piles until the factory is able to process them.
Although this picture was taken during harvest, there are no trucks at the piling station. That is because of heat. To get sugarbeets into the pile in storable condition, it can't be too hot or too cold. Harvest gets shut down if it freezes or if soil temps get above 55.
If you ever get a chance to taste a sugarbeet, it is around 17% sugar so quite sweet. The beet field and the sugarbeet don't look like much, but once you taste it you'll understand where the sugar comes from. This year when you're sprinkling your Christmas cookies with colored sugar or sprinkling your Grapenuts with a little sugar, please remember those who worked 24 hours a day to bring you that sweetness.
Although this picture was taken during harvest, there are no trucks at the piling station. That is because of heat. To get sugarbeets into the pile in storable condition, it can't be too hot or too cold. Harvest gets shut down if it freezes or if soil temps get above 55.
If you ever get a chance to taste a sugarbeet, it is around 17% sugar so quite sweet. The beet field and the sugarbeet don't look like much, but once you taste it you'll understand where the sugar comes from. This year when you're sprinkling your Christmas cookies with colored sugar or sprinkling your Grapenuts with a little sugar, please remember those who worked 24 hours a day to bring you that sweetness.
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