2023 SUGAR BEET HARVEST

[@laginacarter7614]

thank you for the video .. have worked Montana sugar beets for many years now .

[@laginacarter7614]

oh .. hey i grew up in Mountain home .. I love Idaho .

[@Rip1Outdoors]

Interesting. I saw this on a documentary one time about the sugar beets

[@terrynelson2385]

It's an interesting process

[@simeontmoedl6929]

At around the 6 min mark those are NOT beets being dug, that is potatoes, those are potato diggers. Later around 8 minute those are beet harvesters. Also the piles you are calling dirt from fields are not dirt. The large piles outside of sugar beet factories are actually a byproduct of the sugar manufacturing process called Precipitated Calcium Carbonate (PCC). PCC is a solid waste product created by mixing lime with raw juice from sugarbeets. The large, flat-topped piles outside Amalgamated Sugar factory locations are not dirt at all, but a material called Precipitated Calcium Carbonate, or PCC. PCC is a solid byproduct of the sugar manufacturing process If you don’t know what your talking about don’t guess and put wrong information out.

[@terrynelson2385]

you are correct about the potatoes. I must have been lied to about the piles of "dirt". I know nothing about the process of making the sugar. I drove for Transystems for only three seasons and have never worked in the factory as I assume you have. Which factory do you work in? But where is the real dirt; they must clean the beets, right, or does the PCC pile also contain the dirt?? Also, I think most people who watch this are ignorant about everything to do with farming and sugar making, so what does it matter much if the digger is for potatoes or beets? You are probably too young to remember when potatoes were put in sacks by workers in the field who picked them up from the ground by hand. Harvesting has come a long way since I was a kid in the 1950s and 60s. Most of my adult time was spent bombing babies in Vietnam, working at Boeing and the phone company in Puget Sound and a little bit here in Idaho since moving back 20 years ago after retiring.

[@simeontmoedl6929]

@ there is some dirt in the lime piles, most of the dirt gets hauled back out by the growers as they haul beets in. The rest goes out with the wash water and then into settling ponds and is eventually returned or sold as part of the water treatment process. Beet factories are remarkably efficient. From what I know about the lime piles is there is only limited use for it, I read somewhere that some of it used in asphalt or road construction. I’ve never understood why the pile at twin falls is so large compared to one the one at Paul. I apologize if I was rude, I get tired of watching videos that appear interesting then are full of mis-information. My 6 year old is very interested in where other foods come from and how they are made (she only sees us raise hay & barley, and my brother who works on a spud farm) so this week we’ve been watching about sugar. I’d just watched a part of video about sugar cane that was awful, then watched an Amalgamated Sugar video then yours was suggested. I worked several beet harvests with a roommate from college 15+ years ago in American Falls. At the time I wasn’t sure what to do after college and looked into working at the Paul plant. got a tour and applied for an internship and then I had some major health issues and that drastically changed my plans.