Sugar beet harvesting

Russ from MN · Dec 7, 2012

This October I drove truck for a farmer in the Red River valley, hauling sugar beets, and I thought I would post some pictures.
The first picture is opening a field using a cart, all the tires run between the rows, so no beets are driven on. The tops were previously removed with a rotobeater.
After the field is opened, then the trucks drove under the harvester, it would take about 10-20 minutes to fill a truck with about 38,000 lb.
The weeds behind this tractor are the edge of the field, some CRP on a hillside.
We unloaded at the plant into a piler, the dirt that shook out of the beets was put back in your truck and you take it back to the field and dump it.
If the harvest goes perfect 900 acres should take 10 days, this year it took 29! Too warm, too muddy, too cold, ever changing weather.

paul · Dec 7, 2012

To muddy? Hasn't been that in the southern part of the state since May!

Nice pics.

Paul

Eric in IL · Dec 7, 2012

Interesting pictures.

When you bring the dirt back to the field, what are the odds that you got some other farms' dirt and also get some of their weed seed varieties that you previously didn't have ?

What is in the yellow tank on the harvester ?

DeltaRed · Dec 7, 2012

That brings back memories...I havent worked in the beets in almost 30 years.Sure didnt have that kind of equipment!Old tank type digger,topsaver,single axle(side hoist)trucks.....

WyoDave · Dec 7, 2012

Interesting that you still take your tare back to the field. That used to be how it was around here, but now they just subtract it, and pile it at the dump. Something about trying to keep from spreading disease, or something. I can't remember for sure, as I don't raise beets. Nice pictures.

David

Russ from MN · Dec 7, 2012

When your beets go up the conveyor the dirt goes into a hopper along with undersized beets, usually about 1-3000 lbs. I am sure there is some dirt swapping but it doesn't seem to be a concern. All the farmers belong to the co-op anyhow so they all farm under the same guideline. There is also land swapping done so it's not always the boss's land that you are harvesting off of. Beet farmers might swap a 1/4 sec with a potato farmer for crop rotation. The farmer that I worked for raised wheat, soy beans, navy beans and sugar beets.
The yellow tank on the harvester is water, they spray a little in the truck box to prevent sticking, and there is a light spray going into the harvester most of the time.

Russ from MN · Dec 7, 2012

When we started it was very dry, then about the second day it started raining and turned to snow! At first in the rain the harvester was still making a lot of dust and the rain was sticking it to everything, we kept going until it got too muddy, and then waited about 3 days for it to dry up.

in-too-deep · Dec 7, 2012

What? No Saf-t-pull? We don't have beets but have them on our trucks for other muddy or snowy times. Great pics Russ. Beet harvest fascinates me. Might think differently if I was fixing a driveshaft at 3am in the mud in november tho!

Russ from MN · Dec 7, 2012

The farmer that I worked for ran 2- 5 row harvesters and 5 single unit trucks and 2 semi's. The semi's are fine when it's dry but are pretty helpless in the mud. All dual wheels have tire cleaners and when they would push a empty semi the trailer tires would just slide sometimes. The bottleneck of the harvest was at the plant, we almost always waited to get unloaded, sometimes 30-40 min. Rarely would I make more than 8 trips in 12 hours, and never more than 25 miles round trip. There were 13 pilers that would take 2 trucks at a time.

Russ from MN · Dec 7, 2012

We used push tractors, big CIH 4WD with a big rubber pad on the front, a good driver could push you through a muddy spot so smooth you didn't even know he was there.

in-too-deep · Dec 7, 2012

That's interesting! It's all pulling around here. Pushing seems to make more sense.

Russ from MN · Dec 7, 2012

Pulling might work better on semi's, and you can't push a harvester. Some people use the trucks with the conveyors in the bottom (same as for potatoes) and I don't think you could push them.

Anonymous-0 · Dec 7, 2012

I worked on the beet piling ground at Michigan Sugar in Sebewaing Mi this year. I would have been the guy you see to the left of the truck that is dumping. My main job was to take a weight slip from the driver. If it had an x on it I had to collect a sample of that loads beets. The sample was sent to the plant lab and the sugar content measured. I also had to guide the truck under the dirt return elevator.

Only one truck is unloaded at a time and the return is loaded on that truck before the next one is dumped so only a small amount of dirt is mixed. Spilled dirt is collected on sight and disposed separately.

Most trucks here are semi's so most trucks are towed across the field.

We had a dry fall so not much mud.

55 50 Ron · Dec 7, 2012

Nice photos. Thanks for posting them. Were you working in MN or ND? I lived in Fargo awhile before and during my years in college at NDSU so I'm familiar with what you show here.

There is a book (journal type) by Dean Carlson from 1988 that talks about the perils and joys of farming (including sugar beets) in the Red River Valley. Dean farms in Kittson County. The book is called "So This Is Farming", a paper back published by Adventure Publications P.O. Box 269 Cambridge, MN 55008. Very easy and interesting to read and will add to the understanding of growing sugar beets.

samn40 · Dec 7, 2012

Here is a photo of a self-propelled harvester in England.
Sam

DeltaRed · Dec 7, 2012

Been there.NOT FUN!!

Bob Bancroft · Dec 7, 2012

Another memory creeps back up from my youth. Pepsico built a multi million dollar plant here in central NY for the processing of sugar beets. I'm sure they got tax breaks, incentives, etc. But they still had to spend millions building a HUGE facility on the NY barge canal, next to the NYS thruway, with multiple rail sidings, near to the main NY central lines.
But not much thought was given to our rolling, stony, hard ground! We've got a little of everything for soil, but VERY little flat, stone free ground. It only lasted a couple years. I recall riding on a new JD harvester, pulled behind a new 4020. It was stopped more than it was going. I learned later, reading an operators manual, what the driver hadn't- how to get out of park on a hill. He fought with that for quite a while! Interesting what a kid remembers! The "topper" was mounted under the belly of the tractor, and topped the two rows that the harvester then tried to pluck from the ground. Everyone altered their truck tailgates so they could dump. For years afterward you could see the big harvesters setting in hedgerows.

Dick2 · Dec 7, 2012

Is that the Hillsboro yard? Can't see enough of the background to tell.

RayP(MI) · Dec 7, 2012

Sugar beets are some of the dirtiest products to come out of the ground. We raise a lot of potatoes here in Mid-Michigan, and they are a dirty job to harvest, but sugar beets come out of the ground dirtier. Many times, are piled in huge heaps in the edge of the field, loaded in semi-sized dump trucks with a payloader, and hauled to the processor. There they are again piled in huge piles outside until processed, which may be months. Muddy, dirty exposed to the weather.... Fortunately processing cleans it up to the nice white crystals you buy in the bag.

Russ from MN · Dec 7, 2012

No, East Grand Forks.

Russ from MN · Dec 7, 2012

Just out of EGF in MN.

Rick Kr · Dec 7, 2012

Around here they like to scale the beet trucks. Guys load them right over the top. The cart you show in the first picture, friend had one of those destroyed this year, the operator had the dump almost extended to the dump height into the truck and they hyraulic cylinder broke. It came crashing back down.

Around mid-Michigan it seems more are more guys are growing beets.

Rick

Anonymous-0 · Dec 8, 2012

This machine we use to harvest our Beet in Drenthe, Holland. Carries about 60lbs of Beet and harvest 9 rows at once. Spreads its front tires when harvesting to hold the structure.

Sugar beet harvesting

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