Just curious: back in the early 70s I had occasion to be driving around in southern Michigan in the fall. I recall many of the roads being congested with trucks hauling sugar beets to some central location (mill, warehouse, ???). This was the scene over the course of many miles, so it appeared that beets were a major crop in the area. Yet I have never seen any reference to them on this forum. Are they still being grown to any degree?
- Thread starter JerryS
- Start date
in-too-deep
Well-known Member
Yep, in my neck of the woods. NW Minnesota and eastern North Dakota. Usually planted first in 22" rows. Then at harvest around Oct. 1st, they remove the tops with a flail-type machine and pull them with a "beet lifter" into trucks which take them to local "pilers". Which are huge piles of beets outdoors. Some with aeration systems, some without. They harvest around the clock through most any weather cause it's a slow process. They then haul them by semi-load into the plants, of which there are a handful up and down the Red River Valley. They slice em and cook em and extract the sugar. Magic, I think. The spent beet "pulp" is then pressed and given away for cattle feed. They also dry it and sell it as dried pulp for feed. Used to be a very lucrative crop, although quite expensive to grow with all the specialized equipment and labor costs. Sugar prices have tanked over the last couple years, some say due to a flood of Mexican sugar on the market. So, sugarbeets are a money-losing situation lately. But, you can't just quit growing them, because you own "beet stock" and you need to supply beets to the company. Make sense? They also grow em in Michigan, like you said, and I think Wyoming, maybe some NW states, too.
They used to grow lots of sugar beets in my area when I was young.Sometimes a real hassel to harvest in late fall when we would get rain. I remember one year when it froze and some were harvested in the spring. The beets were hauled from the field to piles near rail loading yards where they could be loaded on rail cars over time and sent to processing plants. I remember some humongous piles of beets in places. They don't grow any here anymore as I think the last processor in the area has closed. I am in Central Washington state.
in-too-deep
Well-known Member
Add a little snow or rain to that mud and beet trucks with taillights you can't see because they're so dirty, and weary part-time or rookie drivers than work from 2 to 2, and you have a dangerous place to drive.
Other area in MN is around the Renville plant. Separate farm co-op from RRValley plants. Hector, Willmar, Fairfax, other towns as well. Large investment in stock and machinery. Shares run over 10-1300 per acre- that"s just for the "right" to grow/market them. Can"t grow beets on the same field more than once in 4 years, due to disease buildup. That bids up land rent.....literally had fistfights in one town some years ago at a rental auction. Beets have been a super big moneymaker for years. Lots of new iron in those areas. Not sure of current margins.
onefarmer
Well-known Member
- Location
- 6735 S Lowell Rd, St Johns, Mi 48879
BTO of the area grows several hundred acres here in Clinton Co Mi.
When he pulls them, he piles them close to the road and the company comes with their machine and semis to collect them.
When he pulls them, he piles them close to the road and the company comes with their machine and semis to collect them.
J. Schwiebert
Well-known Member
I don't know what you call "southern Michigan" but around Blissfield and northern Lucas county Ohio they are gone. I can remember when sugar beets would be on railroad cars on trains from the north going to the beet plant in Ottawa Ohio. When I worked for the Oliver dealer in the 60's & 70's we sold a few beet harvesters each fall. Around Findlay & Fremont Ohio there were plants with connections to Pioneer & Michigan sugar. There is still a silo in Findlay with the sugar company name on it.
Northeast Colorado grows a lot of beets.I've helped harvest them for several years when I lived/farmed at FtCollins/Wellington.They still grow them in that area.As far as I know, Holly Sugar now has the only factory left ,located at Ft.Morgan.WesternSlope(Delta) beets went out in the mid '70s.
MarkB_MI
Well-known Member
- Location
- Motown USA
Sugar beet production on the Great Plains went way down after the Hunt brothers tried to corner the silver market in 1980. They used Great Western Sugar, which they owned, as their proxy to buy up silver futures. When silver crashed, it took GW down with it, basically ending the market for sugar beets anywhere GW operated. It was many years before production resumed.
Like rrlund says, some grown in central Michigan. Were far more a few years back. But apparently market wasn't strong enough to sustain production at that level. Remember going by the yard he mentioned -huge pile covering several acres, and probably 20feet high. Stored them like that until they were processed. Some there most of the winter. Big muddy, greasy mess. How they get a nice white crystaline product out of that,I'd like to know. This was when they had a ban on baiting for deer hunting. Piles of beets in the fields waiting transport, not to mention those missed in the field during harvest. Betcha local deer thought they died and went to heaven! (By the way, raw beets don't taste all that good.)
Dave H (MI)
Well-known Member
You can find them sporadically all over central Michigan. I see a lot of beet fields north of 69 when I go pick up equipment or visit Steiners or the IH dealer. Go into the thumb and now you are looking at big fields of beets. As others have said.
Nebraska Cowman
Well-known Member
Interesting you would mention this. I just came back from the annual Farm & Ranch Museum Harvest Festival at Gering Nebraska and the feature crop this year was sugar beets. We learned all about them and yes, they are still grown and processed in that area.
john in la
Well-known Member
If it doesn’t say "Pure Cane Sugar" it’s probably not worth eating.
If growing beets is anything like growing cane it likely has more to do with price fixing; growing allotments; and who you know; than it has to do with if you have a processing plant in your area.
All sugar imported into the U.S. is controlled with tariffs and quotas to artificially raise the price of locally grown sugar.
If growing beets is anything like growing cane it likely has more to do with price fixing; growing allotments; and who you know; than it has to do with if you have a processing plant in your area.
All sugar imported into the U.S. is controlled with tariffs and quotas to artificially raise the price of locally grown sugar.
Like a few of the others have said they are still grown in NE Colorado. We have huge "beet dumps" where the growers haul them to to sell them. Then they are hauled to the processor as needed to make sugar. I buy the pulp witch is a byproduct and add it to my animal feed. They love it.
Greg
Greg
Hundreds if not a few thousand acres of sugar beets here in Gratiot County, MI. Mostly in the northeast part if the county, but a few in other areas. As was previously stated, most around here head to Bay City. Many acres were disked under this year due to rot from flooding.
I am in S MI. We grew beets from mid 70's to 1981. By mid 70's Findlay Ohio was closed. Hauled them to Fremont Ohio. I made 3 trips a day.
As MarkB said there was no beets in 1980. Alot of growers sold their beet equipment for scrape. We hung onto ours and grew again in 1981. Then sold our equipment and got into other crops.
When Fremont closed beets were piled in Blissfield and trucked up north in big gravel trains with high sides.
Blissfield had a sugar factory. The factory opened in 1905 and closed 1954. Back then Grandpa had a one row lifter which lifted the beet out of the ground. Then the beets were hand topped with a beet knife. Then forked into the wagon with a beet fork. Today beets are harvested with a six row self propelled machine.
MI sugar beet history
As MarkB said there was no beets in 1980. Alot of growers sold their beet equipment for scrape. We hung onto ours and grew again in 1981. Then sold our equipment and got into other crops.
When Fremont closed beets were piled in Blissfield and trucked up north in big gravel trains with high sides.
Blissfield had a sugar factory. The factory opened in 1905 and closed 1954. Back then Grandpa had a one row lifter which lifted the beet out of the ground. Then the beets were hand topped with a beet knife. Then forked into the wagon with a beet fork. Today beets are harvested with a six row self propelled machine.
MI sugar beet history
MarkB_MI
Well-known Member
- Location
- Motown USA
John, I don't think sugar made from beets is distinguishable from "pure" cane sugar. Both are pretty much 100 percent sucrose at the end of the refining process. Googling will find plenty of sources that say cane sugar is superior, but most of those seem to be sites sponsored by the sugar cane industry.
Wemedeeres
Member
Weather permitting we will be starting at 12:01am next Wednesday and going 24 hrs. a day until finished or something shuts us down heat, frost and rain are usually the biggest pains. We get heat shutdowns when the internal temp of the beet cannot go above 52 degrees otherwise they wont store in the pile over winter. We get frost shutdowns when the beet cannot show any signs of being frozen which every load is spot checked when the temps at night start to get down to freezing. Rain can be a big factor simply because of all the mud on the roads and not being able to get trucks through the fields, I've even dug in snow squalls which don't happen often but it has. Lightning has been a factor in getting shutdown as well, its more for the safety of the crews at the piling sites. Those pilers make good lightning rods! And of course mechanical breakdowns occur as well.
My home for the next few weeks
My home for the next few weeks
in-too-deep
Well-known Member
Great pictures! 'Cept where's the Saf-T-Pull and the truck driveshaft laying in the mud? : )
WI Dan
Well-known Member
- Location
- Northern Wisconsin, Price County
Thank you for sharing the pictures!
Do the tops of the beets protrude above the soil level? Does it make for a bumpy ride?
Do the tops of the beets protrude above the soil level? Does it make for a bumpy ride?
Wemedeeres
Member
Ive got my fingers crossed we don't have a year like last year.
john in la
Well-known Member
Mark it's just a marketing ploy.
But cane sugar is better (not because of the taste) for cooking especially when making candy.
If you want real brown sugar you need cane sugar.
But cane sugar is better (not because of the taste) for cooking especially when making candy.
If you want real brown sugar you need cane sugar.
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