Post #11

 Saturday, October 25th

The Beet Harvest was finished last Wednesday.  All the drivers went their separate ways, but Layne stayed to start driving for the Corn Harvest on Thursday which will be about two weeks.  For some reason he sure likes this farm and driving those semi's filled with crops!  My days are quiet with cleaning, laundry, reading and sewing etc.  So, nothing else is new.  Later

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Post #10

October 13th

This has been a busy work week.  Layne starts work at 2:30 a.m. and ends his day around 3-4 p.m. each day except Saturday he worked until 6 p.m.     So, on Sunday he slept most of the day.

Today is Saturday, October 18th.  Sorry about not sending a post earlier, but there isn't much to tell.  This last week we had a lot of rain so Layne worked a few half days and Wednesday/Thursday he didn't work at all.   On Wednesday he went fishing, but nothing was biting.   Today he started at 6:30 and worked until 7:30, 12 to 14 hour day are typical.   It looks like the beet harvest season will wrap up for this year in the middle of next week so we will be looking for our next adventure.

These are pics of the skyline taken at various times during Layne's shift.

Night Moon 

Predawn Moon 

Sunrise

Sunrise

Sunset

Before the rain delay this week it was incredibly dusty in the fields.  The dust made everything more difficult... including breathing.

Alternative video link

Harvesting beets in the dark creates new challenges as there are no street lights along the highways or in the fields.  Some fields are over a mile from one side to the other and finding the right lifter under those conditions is tough.  To make it easier color-coded lights help drivers.  The video below shows of how field entrance and exit locations are marked.  Then each intersection on the roads to the pilers are also marked with flashers.  These flashers are easily visible from nearly a mile away on dark country roads.  During daylight hours, one can see that all intersections have 4 white cups attached to the road signs or stop signs at all 4 corners of the intersection.  Each farm used a different color or different flash pattern to help their drivers navigate to the correct piling station.

Alternative video link

The beet lifters are also color-coded with a string light.  While drivers can easily see head lights across the dark field, all headlights look the same and there are several sets of headlights (generally 8 to 12 different sets).  So each lifter has a colored string light hanging from the hopper to help drivers find the correct lifter.  It is then the drivers responsibility to keep the lighted string within a few inches of the trailer while loading so the beets land in the middle of the trailer.  In the picture below, you can see the green string light.  As drivers enter the field they are directed via a CB radio to a specific colored lifter.  The string lights contrast with the headlights and stand out from a long distance.

 

This is the truck Layne drives and what the beets look like when loaded in the trailer.

Sometimes the lines are long at the pilers.  In the picture below, you can see a line of trucks waiting to dump.  When Layne took this picture, he had been slowly inching forward for nearly an hour.  Thankfully, these lines are rare.  On this occasion, trucks were only dumping at one piling station (of 5) because of the heat.  When temps are above the mid 70s, beats are only dumped at stations that have cooling tubes to prevent the beets from overheating and spoiling.

In this picture you can see a pile of beets in the distance.  To the left and right you can see piles of tubes.  Over the next few days, the area where the truck are driving will be filled with beets as the pile in the distance grows.  To give you some perspective, the left/right distance is 360 feet or wider than the length of a football field.

If you look close, you can see the tubes have holes in them to allow air flow.

The tubes are connected to huge blowers on each side that blows air into the beet piles to keep them cool before processing.  The beets are piled about 20 feet high, 360 feet wide and nearly a 1/4 mile long.

Finally, here are a few pics to show the farm site we are camping at during the beet harvest.

Fun Fact: At this farm, during harvest season, they burn around 2000 gallons of fuel each day to operate the various tractors, combines and trucks.  The trucks alone consume around 30,000 gallons of fuel for the roughly 6 week season.  A change in fuel prices of only a few cents per gallon can significantly change a farmers bottom line.  We have gained a new appreciation for the cost of groceries.

Bonus fun fact: During a full 12 hour shift we typically harvest between 225 to 250 acres of beets.  It generally takes about 1/3 to 3/4 of a mile of beets (12 rows across) to fill one semi trailer.  Beet size/density is determined by variety and growing conditions which were not very good this summer as it was too wet.  Unfortunately, we leave several tons of beets in each field because the poor growing conditions this summer resulted in many beets not growing roots and therefore not positioned properly for the lifter to collect from the dirt.

Post #9

October 4, 2025

First of all, Happy Birthday Amelia!  

This week has been slow or maybe better said, relaxing.  Layne worked only two days this week because the weather has been too warm for harvesting beets.  So, we spent our days exploring by driving to Wilmer, Benson, Clara City, and Granite Falls.  Not much around here, but acres and acres of huge fields with farmers harvesting black beans, soy beans and corn.  All of their equipment is huge; tractors, combines, and semi hauling trucks.  This is definitely big farming country.  In Granite Falls Layne did some fishing on the Minnesota River and did catch enough fish for a meal.  I didn't fish because I don't like standing on the river banks or the fast current of the river.

Because of the warm weather there are bugs!!!   Bugs like Asian beetles, flies, gnats, and mosquitos and they all bite! We set up our tent hoping to sit outside, but the gnats get through the screens.

Sunday, Oct. 5, we took a drive to Renville to see the Southern Minnesota Beet Processing Plant.  It's a huge complex with many semi's driving in and out.  

On Monday, Oct. 6, Layne starts work at 6:30 a.m. and finishes around 4 p.m.  Then starting Tuesday, his hours shift from 2:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., 6 days per week for at least the next few weeks.  The main beet harvest usually last for around 2 weeks, depending on weather conditions.  Following the beet harvest, the corn harvest will ramp up and generally run another 2 weeks.

Fun fact: Each load of beets Layne hauls to the piling yard turns into roughly 5500 pounds of sugar.  He will generally deliver over a dozen loads per day making his daily sugar total (in round averages) roughly 70,000 pounds.  There will be 10 other trucks hauling similar loads.  The amount of sugar produced by this mid-sized farm in central Minnesota is staggering.

Later