Beet Harvest

Growing up, I had always seen corn and soybeans.  While I spent the year in Wisconsin, I got to see the tobacco being harvested.  Well this year came another treat. I got to see the Beet Harvest.  These beets would be picked, piled and then taken to the factory so that they can be processed into sugar. So here is my experience.  I talked with one of the farmers in the congregation and he said I could see it.  I arrived out in the field when they had just loaded a semi.  That's right the semi drove right next to the tractor and was loaded up with the beets.  Since the tractor was at a stand still, I hopped into the cab of the semi and road along to see where the beets go after they are done in the field.

Getting in to the cab, I started to talking to the driver.  He is also a member at the congregation.  So after catching up on what's new at his place, he started telling me about the process.  He takes his load over to a big pile.  Every farmer has a pile that they go to.

Here you can see the "piler", the semi, and the big pile of beets.  Each semi can handle 50,000 lbs of beets in one load.  That's a lot of beets.  When a semi pulls in, there is a drive way in which they have to go on to a scale.  This tells the company how much the truck weighed when it came in. It will also be weighed on the way out too. So once you are have gone over the weigh scale. You get in line for the piler.  The piler can handle 2 semis and at this pile there were two pilers.

Sometimes there is a line and when a piler breaks, you can sit here for hours apparently.  Thankfully all four of the pilers were working and so we were able to get right in.

 

We got right next to the pile and were able to unload the whole truck. It was about 50,000 pounds of sugar beets.  That's a lot of sugar. 

  

 There was a lift on the semi so we didn't even have to get out of the cab.  Just pull right in and dump the load.  The piler took care of the rest.

 So how big were the sugar beets?  Well most were the size of my hand.  These are two of the beets and my hand right next to them so that you can get an idea of how large they were.

 Once done at the piler, we were back at the field where they were already working.  You can see two tractors and a semi.  One of the tractors was puller a topper.  That machine removes the top of the beet, the leaves and the stems.  The other tractor has a machine that uses discs to actually pull the beets out of the ground, shake them on a conveyor belt to knock off the dirt and then into the semi.

The rows just kept going. The tractor could pick 8 rows of sugar beets.  The whole process was kind of amazing.  It is great to see the work of God and humans caring for the Earth and even providing for one another. Enjoy the sweet taste of honey, or sugar, flows within this land.