Appleton, MN - Beet Harvest Week 2

 While Gary is working, I work on RV projects and take Tucson for walks.

"Downtown" is only .5 mile away.  It has the basics, a Drug Store.

 

Grocery

Post Office, waiting on our Absentee Ballots to be delivered here.

and nice walking/biking trail

along the Pomme de Terre River

a couple of big Silos

and Tucson has an evening walking buddy, Zoey as her Dad works the night shift so she is home alone from about 2 p.m. to 4 a.m.

This week I went and picked up the Truck and drove out to meet 

Gary so I could ride with him to the Farm to pick up beets and then to 

the Piling Station to dump them.

There are a ton of huge cornfields around but all harvesting is dropped for the Beets, they are the top money crop for the farmers.

 We get to the Farm.  This tractor is cutting the green part of the Beet plant off.

This guy is loading up beets from the ground into the tractor and loader

that will load Gary's Truck.

Gary, patiently waiting

 This video shows Gary's truck being loaded by the Tractor with the harvester that was filled in the field.  You can see in the background a truck being filled directly in the field from the harvester.

A close-up of the harvester dumping the sugar beets into the truck bed.  

Gary stays parked and the tractor backs up along the truck bed and dumps

in about 5 piles - weight between 90,000 and 100,000 lbs. 

Next we take the load to the Piling Station, about a 20-30 minute drive.

We get weighed when we arrive.

The Piling Station and Pile of beets ahead.  

Objects in the distance are larger than they appear!

Only one truck ahead of us.

and then it's Gary's turn.

Gary's truck has a conveyer belt on the bottom that pushes the beets out.

All done!

The other side of the Piler is for side dumping trucks

It actually tips the truck sideways 25 degrees.

That is a boat load of beets!  Gary averages 6-8 loads a shift. They have only been harvesting for 6 days and this is only one of many piling stations.

Gary is weighed again when we leave to determine how many pounds of beets he dropped off.  The people at the piler weigh the dirt that comes off the beets when dumped.  They indicated on Gary's card that it was 6,000 lbs, should have been only 600 lbs, glad the woman at the check in station caught it!

 

Only a 1/2 day of work for Gary today, shutting down at Noon because it is going to get over 70 degrees and they stop harvesting and piling to keep the piles from getting too warm.  An interesting morning, glad I got to tag along.