WildwingsBirds and Outdoor Issues as I see them

Guilty. Here I am shamelessly capitalizing on the Michael Jackson buzz yet again. Oh well…

It was 19 years ago when I first drove truck for the sugar beet harvest. This year, I’m doing it again.

General impressions: driving beet truck is much more intense than say driving a combine. A lot of car drivers are crazy, trucks are very heavy and hard to maneuver in the fields and on the gravel roads, and 12-hour shifts get long (mine is midnight to noon).

Still, it’s always exciting to be a part of something this big, something with so much import for this area. I overheard someone say the other day, "it never really feels like harvest time until I start driving beet truck."

The topper and the lifter await another truck (yes, that’s snow):

Nearing the American Crystal Sugar plant in Moorhead, Minnesota, with a full load (I’ve been averaging about 16 to 17 tons):

In line for the turn-in:

When the temps get close to freezing they open this shed and the folks check every load for frost in the beets just prior to the scale house:

In line at the piler. The red sign says "no cell phone usage on piler." I wonder what they think of cameras. Good thing they didn’t see me.

All those beets end up in huge piles at the plant to await processing:

So far the harvest has been frustrating with multiple shut-downs for wet conditions (8 days straight) and for freezing, a shut-down we are currently under. It makes it hard to get consistency out of life when you don’t know when to sleep or when to drink more coffee. But then this is something farmers experience all the time. It’s just us pretend farmers who notice it.