Storing sugar beets

[Ziptie]

So, what is the best way to sore these outside?

Grew two large rows of them in the garden this year for extra feed for the cow and goats. I don't want them to freeze or I will not be able to cut them up for the animals. No room in the house to store them.

I have a few ideas but I would like to hear everyone else’s.

[sammyd]

in a clamp.

bury an old freezer or even 55 gallon barrels and cover with dirt leaving them open a bit to breathe.

[lmrose]

We store our cattle beets in our rock wall cellar under the house and they keep until eaten up in February. Underneath a barn with a rock foundation and covered with straw would work the same I would think. Our cellar has no heat and we keep all our root crops there all winter.

[Ziptie]

Good ideas but digging in the ground is not an option right now.

[Rustaholic]

Why not?
Is it all concrete?
Do you have a basement under your house?
We kept potatoes and squash all Winter and the potatoes were never gone until we put the new ones in the next year.
We had wooden bins in two different places against the basement wall.

[StL.Ed]

Have you got hay? You can build a hay square and store root crops inside it.

[Ziptie]

sammyd- what do you mean by in a clamp?


Rustaholic-Where the barn is and right around the house is basically a limestone/grante quarry. I would have to get a jack hammer to dig out the hole. Had to do that to run a water line last year..not fun.


Do have a basement but not much room. Keeping squash,potato's, and the rest of the food down there for us. No garage

StL.Ed-That was what I was thinking but not sure how well that would keep them from freezing. Will need to get some straw for the critters any way. Was thinking maybe but them in a plastic garbage can then stack the bales around and on the top.

I have started feeding the cow some of them now anyway as we have started to feed hay. She seems to really like the bottoms but not the tops so much. Also, found that using ...what are they called...long handed tree clippers are great for cutting them up in smaller chunks for her.

Thanks for all the input.

Always a experiment.

[jwal10]

I use a machete to cut them. We store all the root crops for the animals and the squash and pumpkins in the loose hay stall. One corner is apples, too....James

[PNP Katahdins]

Could you feed them up before it freezes too hard? That would extend your hay supply, and give you time to think about how to store them next year.

Peg

[moldy]

They are stored on the ground in huge piles at the sugar factory. The piles are covered with unbroken hay bales.

[Ziptie]

Moldy is the sugar factory in KS? The only reason I am worried about them freezing is that it I think it would be really hard to cut them up at that point.

No, too many to feed up at once (that is a good thing right). We just had a light freeze a couple of days ago so winter is just around the corner.

[jbo9]

In Wyoming, where beets are grown commercially, they aren't even dug until after a good hard freeze. The freeze sends the plant sugars down into the root, where they want it. To store the beets, they pile them up in massive piles and then use a straw chopper to cover them with straw, as much as a foot thick. Its enough insulation to keep the really cold out and the warmth of fermenting/rotting beets in.

If you do pile yours, there seems to be some chemical in the beets that kills off any vegetation. It leaves the ground super-slimy when it gets just a bit wet, totally fun for spinning cookies.