Sugar Beets?

Wow, 18%!

They are grown in a band in central MN, starting about 40 miles north of me. And then another location along the Red River Valley. Lot of beets in MN.

They are very fuzzy to grow with any quality, they are subject to a lot of pests from insects to fungus and so on, stuff that builds up in the soil.

There has, in the past, been a lot of hostility between farmers that grow beets, and those that do not. Around here they are all closed coops, meaning you need to own shares to grow beets for that coop, and they tell you how many to grow, when to plant, and so on. The shares are not cheap. It kinda gets into a for and against folks with beet contracts at times, you know the typical human stuff....

Beets can take a lot of nutrients out of the ground, and harvest can be tough on the ground if it is wet. Some land owners have 'no sugar beets' clauses in their rent contracts.

--->Paul

Imports of cane sugar from South America is exactly why I will only buy sugar made from beets. I have a lot of friends that still grow sugar beets in MT and WY, so I'm going to help support them.

Bobg

For the "only as God made them" crowd, Man has brought beets a long way since first used in 1747 and sugar content topped at 1.6%. By 1784, a variety was developed which was a whopping 6%. Now there are some which can do 21% under certain conditions.

Martin

Sounds interesting so far. Can someone give me pointers on growing them?
Are they like Tobacco and peanuts where you need a government Allotment to grow them or is that just a local processor thing?

Get seeds.
Spread them in the field.
Stand back and don't get knocked down.
This is how we do it. Works well.
We don't sell them. They're eaten as fall and winter fodder by our livestock.

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Best way to start them is in a 72 or 144 cell tray. Then transplanted in rows 24" apart and spaced 10" to 12' apart. Many seeds will be clusters so those seedlings have to be divided. That's what worked best for Mammoth Red mangels and they're about the same size.

Martin

we use a john deere plateless finger type planter--same as for corn, we plant seed direct in soil about march and harvest in november. you cannot just grow and expect to sell them for sugar--the factory only buys from contracted farmers. the crop rotation is every 5 years you can plant again in a field, has to do with fungus and pests that can live in the soil for several years. sugar beets are a high cost, high risk, high reward crop that takes a lot of babying along the way to get a good crop. most beets nowadays are roundup ready, used to be it took an army of migrants to hoe a field, both thinning and weeding.

You will not find a place to sell them for sugar processing easily. In general processing them into sugar is a closed loop.

You can't get the GMO sugar beet seeds unless you are part of a group - it got heavily controlled a few years ago.

The regular type seeds you can grow willy nilly, no problem, no allotments. Might have to look a while to find a seed supplier?

To those who feed them, how does that work? Do you have to do anything to them? Are the tops good browse as well, or just the beet part? I'd guess high energy feed, proably not much protien?

I grow grazing turnips, never really thought about feeding sugar beets.

--->Paul

No problem finding sugar beet and mangel seed. Jung's and Shumway both have them from small packets to 5#. I used to offer to supply mangel seed to HT members for cost plus postage. A few "forgot" to pay so I quit it.

www.jungseed.com/dc.asp?c=584

www.rhshumway.com/dc.asp?c=269

Martin

http://www.grandpappy.info/rsugar.htm
This site has instructions for making sugar from beets. One of these days, when I have the time, I really want to try it. Sounds like a fun project with the grandkids.
Kit

Of all the years I have worked the sugar beet harvest in the Red River Valley (of the north) I only have a few pictures.



Here trucks are waiting in line to drive up on the piler and dump their load.
This Mexican is proud of his old truck. I think it was a 1958. Most truck are modern. Either strait truck or semi. End dumps or live bottoms.



Notice the pull ring on the front of every truck. Each farmer has a big 4 wheel drive tractor in the field with a special bar with hydraulic hooks to pull the trucks if (when) they get stuck.



Here is another old truck making a living hauling beets.
These trucks happen to be custom hauler, the farmers equipment is always newer.

Here are some pictures off the net. This is the “lifter” harvesting the beets after they have been topped. A separate tractor pulls a topper that is similar to a flail mower.





I takes at least three tractor per farmer to do the harvest; the topper, the lifter, and the pull tractor, plus they usually have another big 4 wheel drive to plow the field when you are done harvesting it. They run 24/7 for about two weeks to get the beets in, longer if it rains, or get to cold or to warm.

Here is the line of truck waiting to dump. They can dump on either side. One will be dumping and the other side will be exiting and entering. The center conveyer belt brings the beets up to the big pile.





I am guessing the pile is 50 feet tall, 100 yards wide, 500 yards long.



Studhauler

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COOL! VERY COOL! I have delivered a few of those haulers!

Thanks
Good site.
I wonder if once the sugar water is cooked down if it could be crystallized quicker by using a dehydrator?
jim

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Seems like once you were at the water stage you would treat it like maple sap.
Wonder what my veggie juicer would do?

If anyone wants to try growing some without spending too much on shipping and handling charges, I can send a half-ounce packet of Buck Lunch for $5. That would be up to 2,000 seeds for sugar beets or up to 800 seeds for Mammoth Long Red mangels.

Martin

I hoed beets as a kid growing up. In the early 70's I was paid $25 an acre. A friend showed up once with a long handled hoe, the farmer asked to see it and he soon had a 14" hoe and a long piece of handle. I think the best, cost effective way of producing a sweetner for a homesteader is a beehive.

They gave me a couple bushels of them at the feed store back when I had pigs.
I chopped them up with my machete and the pigs loved them.

My grand uncle used to grow them to feed his hogs back in the day in Germany (of course, he didn't have the option of subsidized corn). I second that they need excellent soil. They were direct seeded, and then thinned (labor intensive). I don't remember much about harvesting them, except that they were harvested in late fall (it was freezing), the tops were used for something, since we picked them up out of the field, and that mid to long term storage was uncomplicated (root cellar). He had a chopper for them that shredded them into inch-size shreds and then cooked them for slop, together with table scraps and some kind of grain meal. I haven't eaten sausage like that in many, many years...

Three people PMed me to get a packet for them and I did. Only one sent $5 so now there's 2 packets sitting here and I'm not going to eat them. Anyone want them for $5 each, let me know. Lots more where they came from if I get more than 2 requests.

Martin