Sugar Beets
We produce sugar beets which are processed into….you guessed it, sugar. While the main goal for sugar beets is sugar, other parts of the sugar beet may be used as livestock feed. This could be the sugar beet leaves saved at beet harvest, or beet pulp which is made during the sugar extraction.
We plant the small beet seed with an air planter. It can be used as a no-till planter, and this year we planted half of our sugar beets directly into barley stubble with no prior tillage. The other half was planted behind a field cultivator. We ran the field cultivator to level the ground and provide a better seed bed. The air planter is nice because it allows us to put starter fertilizer on while planting which helps the seed get a good start.
Like our other crops, the water comes next. It is important to keep the soil moist to make it easier for the sugar beets to emerge. If the soil gets too dry on top, it may form a crust which makes it too difficult for the beets to break through, causing them to break off and die. If there is enough moisture in the soil at planting, we may not have to irrigate until after all the beets have emerged.
Here are the sugar beets we planted directly into the barley stubble.
Sugar Beets no-tilled into barley stubble
Baby sugar beet
Sugar Beet
Here are some beets we pulled. The left one is not very old and is still really small. The right one has been growing longer and is quite a bit larger. The bottom white part is the actual beet and what we will harvest. It will be a lot larger at harvest. The tops will continue to grow as well. At harvest, we will cut the tops off with a defoliator and then dig the beets with a digger. The white beet part grows under ground, while the top leaves grow above ground.
Here are a couple recent pictures of the sugar beet fields.
We will start sugar beet harvest in October and I can't wait to post videos of that! Until next time, stay sweet! 🙂