Riding Along In The Sugar Beet Truck

Today I rode with husband Harold in the beet truck out in the fields.  The sugar beet harvest is a fascinating process and I always enjoy riding along for part of the day.  Harold has driven a beet truck during harvest time for about 15 years now, and always the same old Mack truck.  This is a very busy time now around here as farmers are harvesting beets, soybeans, and corn.   Everyone who is willing to drive a truck of any kind can find a job working in the fields.  And there is a real shortage of drivers, too.  Many of the drivers are older guys who are retired.  Some drivers are guys with regular jobs but take their vacation time to drive a beet truck.  Sad to say that younger guys have no desire to drive a truck in the fields, and even if they did, most of the trucks are clutch type trucks and younger folks only know how to drive automatics!  During harvest season the pay is very good (high hourly wage!) in an effort to attract drivers!  When Harold finishes the beets he is often asked to drive a truck for corn harvest, too.
      Here are photos I took today while riding along.  Most were taken from inside the truck, as there wasn't time for me to step out and get the 'proper angle'!  Harvesting beets is a dusty and often muddy job, so the windshield gets rather dirty.  The pictures here reflect that windshield full of field mud!  It is also a bumpy ride so some of the photos might be a little on the blurry side.
     I have written articles before regarding sugar beets.   There are more photos on the Oct 2015 post.

We start off in the field.  Harold drives the truck right alongside the beet lifter tractor, and we both follow the beet topper tractor.  The tops of the beets are cut off by the first tractor, then the second tractor pulls a lifter which digs and loads the beets via conveyor belt into Harold's truck. 

The loader tractor operator waves to us!

This is a very sizable beet field which took about 2 days of 24 hour shifts to finish.   We follow the topper about 50 feet behind.

Harold concentrates on keeping the truck alongside the lifter tractor and watching the two lights seen on the right hand side of the photo.  When the lifter guy wants Harold to slow down, he puts the red light on.  When he wants Harold to speed up a little more, he puts the green light on.   The truck and the tractor ride along less than 18 inches apart, and travel at about the same speed.   As one part of the truck bed gets filled with beets, Harold has to move slightly ahead or slow down to make a new space for beets to be loaded into.   Harold works the night shift from 2 a.m. to 2 p.m. so he has to concentrate on this even in the dark!

Sometimes trucks don't follow the lifters and toppers.  This farmer has purchased "lifter carts" that go around the field gathering beets behind the toppers.  Truck drivers then drive up alongside a full cart and get loaded with beets.  You can see one truck being loaded in this photo.  The farm that Harold drives for has more than 18,000 acres.  The carts help somewhat, but many drivers are required.   They have at least a dozen or so drivers.

This part of the state is quite flat and pretty much all farm land.  There are very few paved roads, most of the roads are gravel.  Here you can see a loaded beet truck going back to the piler station.  The roads are very dusty and by the end of the harvest season they are quite torn up by the heavily loaded trucks.

Before going to the piler, trucks go to the scale house to get weighed.

Here are two kinds of trucks at the piler.  On the right is a bottom conveyor truck unloading beets.  On the left is the typical truck that unloads by raising the bed high.   We are waiting in line for our turn to unload.  All beets go to the middle and are then heaped onto the beet pile via conveyor belt. that moves from left to right spreading beets.

The truck beds raise quite high to unload the beets.

A view of the middle of the piler with beets on the conveyor belt.

The pile of beets is getting quite high already.  Many farmers from the surrounding area bring their beets here.  There are 106 beet pilers in the Red River Valley area.  Beets are piled about 32 feet high and covered with tarps and aerators during the winter.  American Crystal Sugar Co uses these beets to make various sugar products.

After the beets are unloaded at the piler, the tare (weight of dirt left in the truck) is unloaded in the tare field.  Here a truck is raising the bed high to unload the tare.

All day long at the piler, beets get spilled all over the place and crushed.  These are some stray beets in the picture.   Sugar beets are about 7 inches long and 5 inches wide on average, with some beets being much larger. 

All day long Harold gets load after load of beets - usually about one load per hour or less.   In this photo you can see how close the truck and lifter are from each other.

No matter what field he is in, the scenery is about the same!  Almost all of North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota looks just like this!  But this part of the country supplies a great amount of wheat, corn, soy beans, edible beans, sugar beets, barley, potatoes and oats to feed the world.   Some folks in big cities will laugh, but North Dakota puts a lot of potatoes and bread on American tables. 

This pile of sugar beets is already about 32 feet high.  (By the way, don't you just love the little silver bulldog on the hood of Harold's Mack truck?)  This truck is 36 years old, has over 750,000 miles on it, and was formerly a truck up on the Iron Range area in north central Minnesota, working in the mines.  Harold has driven this truck for 23 of the 36 years, as this truck used to belong to another farmer that Harold drove for many years ago.   None of the other drivers like this truck, so Harold gets his old #7 Mack every year.  He says he truly feels at home driving this old gal.  There is one other guy (old and retired) who can drive this old touchy, somewhat quirky truck, and he takes the day time shift.

Besides drivers, there are people who operate the piler equipment and direct the drivers, handle load tickets,  and also clean up beet spills.  These are workers from American Crystal Sugar.  They wear warm clothes and hard hats and spend all day outside.  A tough job.   Rain, shine, cold wind - they are outside for a 12 hour shift.