Beet, Beet, Sugar Beet.......

For the past couple weeks many farmers around here have been harvesting sugar beets.  Harold usually drives a beet hauling truck in the fields and to the beet piler for Skaurud Grain Farms.  I ride with Harold once a year for part of his 12 hour shift.  The beet harvest is a very interesting thing to see!  It always amazes me that those ugly sugar beets (yes, they are truly an ugly vegetable) are processed into the table sugar we all know and love.  American Crystal Sugar Co in Moorhead Minnesota processes beets, and there are many beet pilers in the area.   Here are photos I took today riding with Harold.
This is a sugar beet:

An ugly vegetable indeed is the lowly sugar beet.

The inside of the sugar beet.  It is a little sweet tasting if you bite off a small piece.

A typical sugar beet field.

The beets are lifted out of the ground with a special machine that digs the beets out of the ground and puts the beets onto a small conveyor onto a truck.  The truck is driven right alongside the lifter until it is full, then the truck full of beets is taken to the beet piler somewhere.  Today the fields were quite muddy, as we got a lot of rain the other day.  So most of the trucks were pulled in the fields with a special puller/tractor that has tracs instead of wheels.

Looking out the back window of the truck at the beet lifter.

A closer view of the beet lifter

Our truck was pulled in the field by the puller/tractor.

A view of another truck in the field being pulled alongside the lifter.

Beets from the lifter going into a truck.  Our truck developed engine trouble, and we had to wait for a field repairman to pull us out.

Once the truck is full of beets (about 60,000 lbs worth), it is driven to the piler.   The truck bed is lifted up and the beets fall onto a conveyor.

Beets being unloaded at the piler.

The beets then go onto another conveyor and are shot out onto a huge pile.   The beets must be harvested and stored at a certain temperature.    There are about a dozen piler stations around here, and they all have huge piles of beets from all the area farmers.   These piles of beets are loaded onto smaller trucks and driven to American Crystal Sugar Co as needed.   Most beets are gone by next spring when the weather gets warm.  

After a load of beets is taken to the piler, the truck driver must unload the tare before getting another load.  A special place at the edge of a field is designated for tare piles.   This tare is a mixture of mud/dirt and crushed beets and rocks.

Going to get another load of beets in the field.   It's a bumpy ride!  There are special beet topper tractors that cut the foliage of the beets, so it is easier to lift the beets out of the ground.   A typical beet harvest needs people to cut and top beets, drive in the fields, drive the lifters, drive the pullers, man the pilers, man the weigh stations, test the beets, repair trucks and equipment, office workers for the contracts and paperwork, and the farm women to keep everyone fed!

There are about 3000 farmers who provide beets for American Crystal sugar, so the beet season is really important around here.   The final result of all the harvest is this:

The end result of sugar beet harvesting!  Check out that cute Dutch-themed sugar bowl!