Sugar Beets
Tina Mitchell
Sources
1. America’s Heartland Harvest Video
Description
· beet of a variety from which sugar is extracted, it is a swollen taproot
· A mature sugar beet measures up to a foot long
· Weighs two to five pounds
· produces about three to five ounces of sugar
· Roughly 18 percent of the beet is pure sugar
· The sugar beet plant is a root crop which grows underground
Climate/Location
· Tend to be grown in the more northerly portions of the United States
· sugar beet valley
· Can be grown in southern states and warmer climates
· The earlier the planting and longer the growing season, the higher the yield
Planting
· prepare your seed beds in a sunny location with firmly packed soil
· slightly moist soil at a depth of three-quarters to 1.5 inches
· soil is well-drained and free of roots and large stones that can inhibit the roots' growth
· prefer a soil pH of 6.0 to 6.5
· 1 inch apart in rows and then thinning the plants
· Space the plants 10 to 12 inches apart
· Space rows 18 to 24 inches apart
· reach maturity in 90 to 95 days
Production Increases in the 2000's
· investment in new processing equipment
· adoption of new technologies
· the use of improved crop varieties
· acreage expansion
Harvesting
· Leafy tops are mowed off
· Digger comes and slices tops off of the beets
· Pulls beets out of the ground by two blades turned at an angle
· Lifts them onto grab rolls to separate soil from beet and convey to the back of the harvester
· Dumped in the “farris wheel”
· Conveys them to an “elevator”
· Loaded on to a truck
· Taken to sugar plant
· Digger is pulled behind a tractor
· Also have combines
Mowing Leave Off and Chopping Tops Off
Wheels Lifting the Sugar Beets out of the Soil
Digger Loading into a Truck
Pests
· seedlings compete poorly with weeds
· hand pulling
· spot spraying problem areas with herbicide throughout the growing season
· Root rots, Powdery mildew, Cercospora leaf spot
· cutworms, nematodes, flea beetles, wire-worms, root aphids, white grubs and web-worms
Uses
· Sugar
· Molasses
· cattle feed (beet pulp)
· dog food (beet pulp)
· Plastics (beet pulp)
Fun Fact
· sugarcane has accounted for about 45 percent of the total sugar produced domestically
· Minnesota ranks first in national sugar beet production, followed by North Dakota, Idaho, Michigan and Montana
· biodegradable plastic that could be used in disposable food containers is made from sugar beets