Beet harvest 2016

Sugar beet harvest is a crazy time on our farm with early mornings and late nights. I am at school or at home with the kids for the majority of harvest, so Boots and our truckers were my official photographers.

Tractor with Digger & Loaded Trailer

Sugar beets are a root crop, so they grow underground. The harvesting process begins with the defoliating tractor which rips the leaves off of the root.

Field of beets 1/2 defoliated and 1/2 not yet defoliated

Tractor and defoliator

Defoliated beet

Next, the beet digger uses a two part system to pull the beets up and run them through scrub rollers. These rollers then push the beets back to the elevator chain belt and into the tank. There are also Ferris wheel style diggers that circulate the beets into the tank.

Front view of Digger

Back view of Digger

Ferris wheel style digger

When the digger is full, it unloads into a trailer pulled by a semi. We use cage trailers which tip to unload, but there are also live bottom trailers which open at the end and use conveyor belts to drop the beets.

Digger loading a semi and trailer

Ground after the beets have been harvested

We grow beets for a company called Western Sugar, so we transport our loads to the local beet dump. This is usually the kids' favorite part (but I think it is just because they get candy at the weigh station).

Pulling into the weigh station so they
know how heavy the load of beets is.

My favorite truck driver (my dad)
with the printout from the weigh station

Pulling into the dumping area

Beets loading to be taken to the pile

Transport truck

Eventually, this large pile of beets will be hauled to the Western Sugar plant in Fort Morgan to be made into sugar.

Huge sugar beet pile

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