Idaho Sugar Beet Harvest 2023 near Declo

In this video I am out in a sugar beet field south of Declo Idaho as this farm is busy harvesting/digging their 2023 beet crop.
In the video I show and explain the process of what they are doing. First up they are running their Massey Ferguson 8650 tractor pulling an Alloway defoliator ahead of the harvester. After they run the defoliator/topper over the beets they are coming through the field with their Fendt 936 tractor which is pulling an Amity 2700 digger/beet harvester. They are side loading the beets into several different truck which are hauling the beets and stockpiling them in the field temporarily.
Later in the video the local beet processing plant is loading the beets out of the field and into semi trucks. The loader is a Holmer cleaner/loader and once the beets are loaded up in the semi trailers they are being hauled to the processing plant to be made into sugar.
I've done other usage beet harvest videos that are on my KZbin channel in Michigan and Colorado. I was also able to video a potato harvest video while in Idaho and that video was just posted two weeks ago if you'd like to check it out.
Farmhand Mike Merchandise including hats, shirts, hoodies and stickers are available through Caz-gear.com or farmhaodmike.com.
Thanks for watching and supporting my social media.

[@jamesharrier6633]

Mike, how about going through the sugar beet factory and showing how they are processed into sugar. Would be very interesting.

[@farmhandmike]

I'll have to put that on the list of future videos.

[@joelg8004]

That would be really cool to see!

[@deplorablelibertarian]

If Farmhand Mike was actually able to get access to a facility and film the whole process, that would be one of his best videos of all time. We get a lot of the same stuff on this channel because there’s not a lot of specialty crops out there. If there are those farmers doing specialty crops, then there’s no way to know about it. It would also be cool to see a combine that harvests hemp, theres a fair amount in South Carolina.

[@plowboy7700]

Went through one on a field trip when I was in grade school. Pretty cool process.

[@paulprigge1209]

Most definitely!

[@billlong769]

Can't beet that smell. Nice work Mike. 👏

[@SraTacoMal]

This is the first real farming video my phone has recommended to me (rather than Farming Simulator). Nice video! Loved the part where the shoe came off, lol.

[@essexfarmer9610]

Mike, Thanks for including the tennis shoe loss moment! A lot of people would have cut that, but you provide entertainment on all levels!

[@georgetarabini6552]

Quite the operation, great coverage showing all aspects

[@clfhnt]

Well done Mike......thanks a lot.😃😃😃

[@lythitan88]

You make farming look so simple and enjoyable

[@Hinesfarm-Indiana]

Talking about sugar? This must be one sweet video lol 😆

[@YouT-DJ]

Decades ago were were sent to Grand Forks to work at the base. They put us up in a cheap hotel right next to a sugar beet plant/fermenting pond. You went smell blind in minutes!

[@fischerlegault719]

Great video, we just started digging in Michigan not to long ago.

[@OpunktSchmidt1301]

Grand sugarbeet-operation-video! Thanks a lot for that! 😊👍🏻

[@floydreed8777]

You’re close to my hometown, which is Burley, Idaho, born and raised why worked for many of farmers doing that sugarbeet harvest, potato harvest grain wheat so I pretty well know where you’re at right there outside south of Declo. Thanks for sharing some of Idaho on here.

[@markreetz1001]

Mike has some of the most varied & "versatile" content on you tube. You may see something more than once like beet harvest, but if you think back Mike has brought us many a varied crops. A couple that stick are grass seed combining in Oregon and loose hay stacking in Montana. What a hoot that was! Potato harvest, cotton picking bales and packing. Planting everything, side dressing corn. sprayer work. Keep 'em coming Mike!

[@farmhandmike]

Thanks, And so much more to come. It just takes time but I have a lot of interesting things lined up for the future.

[@Mygirlfriend3141]

Great video so when we harvest around here we take it to a beat dump from there they take it to the processing plant great too see how others do it beets is a great crop I love beet harvest

[@joelg8004]

Whoa I had no idea the foliage was that thick and dense on beets! 🤯 great video Mike!

[@charlesjenkins8078]

Great video.Thanks for the details.Thanks Mike!

[@70bondie]

Great video mike thank you. What a landscape you get to work in.

[@lcdc59]

Very nice Mike!!

[@michaelbaumgardner2530]

Good thing they are hard as a baseball,all that mechanical harvesting would killem...Cool Video

[@dustinlowry9075]

That is Awesome! Thank you Mike for the videos

[@Snowtruckdriver]

Back in the 1950's and 60's U & I Sugar corp used to process sugar Beets in the Columbia Basin of Eastern Washington. They had a processing plant in Moses Lake Washington. My dad farmed directly across the road from the factory. He grew beets for them for 7 years. Nice video. Back in the day we had a John Deere 2 row harvester and a 6 row defoliator. My how times have changed

[@frankscruggs4749]

Good video.

[@ScottPykare]

I'm enjoying these different types of farming Mike. I'm sure most of us haven't seen this type of harvesting.

[@Tommy-vh7xj]

Great when you can actually hear these machines running

[@loganroberts4664]

after Being part of growing, harvesting, working on the piling grounds and in the sugar factory. Its always interesting seeing the different techniques and technology used to complete the job

[@bluemlein3475]

Hey Mike, nice video:) PS: i build the red Holmer here in Germany. And yellow one was from a brand called Ropa:)

[@billsmith8739]

Yup NW Ohio did grow a lot of sugar beets back in 1940's- 1980's. My dad's family was one of them. There was a processing plant in Findlay and maybe in Fremont, Ohio. The building is still in Findlay but not used for anything.

[@davecramer9725]

The building in flindlay is some kind of warehouse

[@rickarting4591]

The plant in Fremont Ohio is torn down but the silos.are still standing. They stopped processing beets in late 1990's

[@aulasdedirecao]

It's fascinating to learn about the history of self-propelled loaders in the agriculture industry. As far as I know, only two companies remain - Ropa in yellow and Holmer in red. Interestingly, there was another company, Kleine, which was later acquired by Grimme. However, Grimme chose to focus on harvesters, discontinuing the loaders. The fact that Ropa and Holmer, both from small Bavarian villages, have persevered in this specialized field highlights their dedication and expertise. It's a testament to their commitment to innovation in agriculture machinery. Truly remarkable!

[@AkbarMoncongloe]

Great video 👍

[@eraaspr1]

Thanks for sharing another video. I'm very grateful to you for all the work and effort you put in to make videos like this.

[@FMueller1992]

As far as I know there are only two companies left, Ropa-yellow and Holmer-red, who make these self propelled loaders. There used to be another company called Kleine, which was sold to Grimme, but Grimme only continued to make the harvesters, not the loaders. Ropa and Holmer are from small villages very close to each other in Bavaria.

[@John-nc4bl]

There is far too much 'alien' machinery appearing on our farms nowadays. Smarten up people and buy tractors, combines and a slew of other machines manufactured here and keep our workers employed. Our machines are every bit as good as that offshore stuff.

[@Snowtruckdriver]

Except that no US manufacturer makes a ground to truck loader like that. @@John-nc4bl

[@keeshin1600]

Het schiet wel mooi op met die 12 rijers , vroeger zag je in Nederland ook van dit soort machines maar dan 6 rijers. Tegenwoordig bijna allemaal 6 rijers complete machines, koppen rooien en laden in een bunker en dan wagens voor de afvoer ! Wel een hele mooie video , bedankt daarvoor !

[@SimonKL11]

Nice beet harvesting video👍😉 I have only seen holmer and ropa harvesters around here😁👍

[@magicbrowntrout]

Nothing beat the American largest sugarbeet farm called The Gudajtes Family farm in Minnesota

[@BRPFan]

Great video Mike!

[@damjanr9497]

VERY GOOD & SMOOTH OPERATION !!! 👍👏✌ 💪💪💪 💜💜💜 THANK YOU , MIKE🙏🥰🥲😍😇 🤎💛🤎 💚💛💚 💙💛💙 💜💜💜

[@chrisgossman6512]

I have seen your previous sugar beets videos in the past. You made this video like the videos when you cover agricultural techniques I haven't seen before. Nice job Mike. Happy subscriber 😊!

[@Andy-From-England]

Hi Mike cracking video mate... In England the area I come from I think they called wuzzels hence the name of the 7os agricultural group the wurzals remember the song I got a brand new combine harvester I give you the key

[@bobtanner4068]

They call the truck loading machine the “Mouse” the yellow equipment is also built in Germany. The company is ROPA

[@gerhardhansmeier1943]

Yes, in Germany we call it Rübenmaus = beet mouse. Don' t ask why 😅

[@bobtanner4068]

@@gerhardhansmeier1943 the long loading conveyor looks like a mouse tail

[@dontmakemelaugh01]

We just call it ropa here in Idaho.

[@John-nc4bl]

Another excellent video from ya Mike and thanks for it. That topper sure makes short work of the foliage and it makes me wonder if any beet harvesters have the topper mounted on the front of the harvester. Some spud harvesters have a topper mounted on the front of the harvester.

[@farmhandmike]

The self propelled beet harvester has its own topper in the front

[@John-nc4bl]

I didnt know that or notice that.@@farmhandmike

[@Pattern-Recognition]

The cleaner-loader is made in Germany by Holmer. But the company belongs to a French holding company by now. Holmer is world market leader in building sugar harvesting equipment. The "yellow" competitor you mentioned is built by Ropa - another German machine builder.

[@lol-vz8kd]

Despite sugar beat being common where I live, I have never seen the harvets of them. However I have seen machines loading trucks on the road.

[@franciscosandiego3026]

I like Mike less videos on KZbin from the imperial county California 👍👍🇺🇲🚜🚜🚜🥔🥔🥔🥔🌰🌰🌰🌰

[@IndergaardAcres]

Nice video Mike! Have you ever made it to the Red River Valley of ND/MN for the sugar beet harvest out there? I've worked that harvest before. Always a fun time.

[@ileenmcminn2062]

The field I was looking at about a week later was east of there along I-86, the sugar factory is about 20 miles NW of there.

[@Beyonder8335]

As a corn belt guy I find sugar beet stuff really fascinating, I'd be curious how beets would grow in our area of northeast Iowa, you don't see any around but I'm not sure if it's a climate thing or just a lack of processing plants nearby.

[@Bigballertwentythree]

Dude if you want I farm beets I’ll mail you a a handful of seed..deer love them

[@Beyonder8335]

@@Bigballertwentythree lol thanks for the offer. I meant more in terms of on a scale lol.

[@farmhandmike]

I'm sure they'd grow just fine. I've planted them in my garden before and they did good

[@americanbeefranch]

@farmhandmike can probably back me up on this but Idaho is an ag powerhouse. Idaho produces so much and is in the top 5 of several categories. People may not think so but until you visit and see how much is grown here most don’t understand. I love it when people think we are the little guys when in fact generally it’s the other way around.

[@brianzybura8633]

I read in a magazine some years ago that Idaho is one of the top potato producing states. Also at the time, not sure about now, there is or was a large potato plant in Idaho that processed potatoes into fries and their main customer was the McDonald's restaurant chain. Yes, Idaho is an ag powerhouse.

[@americanbeefranch]

@@brianzybura8633 number 1 in potato’s, #2 in sugar beets, top 2 in alfalfa, top 5 in barley, hops, cheese, milk, onions, spring wheat, dry edible peas. We could go on but I think people get it now. 😂

[@brianzybura8633]

@@americanbeefranch Americanbeefranch, thanks for telling me. In agriculture , Idaho is big and with great mountain scenes to go with it.

[@americanbeefranch]

@@brianzybura8633 no worries. I make ag video here in Idaho and hope one day I can be the size of Mike

[@brianzybura8633]

@@americanbeefranch Well, I wish you success and happiness!

[@Farmerboykevin]

Those green trucks are called Transystrems

[@randyronny7735]

Do they run 24 hours/day in Idaho like they do in MN & ND. In MN & ND they will pull the trucks and lifters all the way thru the field if there is a chance of getting stuck. They also use beet carts pulled by tractors to haul the beets to the end of the field or road and then dump them into the trucks to save wear and tear on the equipment.

[@americanbeefranch]

Just depends on the farm. I have a cousin that use tractors and carts and other that don’t.

[@allenschmitz9644]

Beet truck boredom here we go!

[@edgarantoniocastrosoto]

saludos mike less desde los mochis sinaloa mexico aqui tambien sembramos patatas y remolacha importamos maquinaria de idaho , dakota del norte , correl minezota marcas como spundnik ,lockwood , pickeet jonh deere jonh blue yo e ido en trca de aqui de los mochis me las e traido en remolques asta los mochis sinaloa como sembradoras para patatas y remolacha rotocultivador abierto de 8 surcos marca struik holland contreador marca dikker contreador spudnick saludos

[@Jimmy-372]

Very interesting. Have you ever seen a tomato or cucumber harvest?

[@farmhandmike]

Yes, I did did a couple tomato harvest videos a few years ago. I've seen cucumber harvest but was not able to video it.

[@Mike-.747]

That field looks massive. How many acres? Thanks

[@delbutler885]

It's a pivot somewhere around a 160 acre quarter section

[@handydkman]

Hi. I am from Denmark. From my childhood, I remember we used the sugar beats top for silage. No one do that anymore?

[@hakanhakan9932]

We also have one of these troublesome weeds in America. 😄There are gaps in Amaranthus retroflexus fields and it has increased in our fields in recent years. Why can't the crop grow in these gaps?

[@rightsideofthegrass8114]

I'm interested in the mulcher. I understand the flails and the rubber fingers. I presume the rubber fingers are intended to brush away some of the dirt exposing the tops of the beets. But I'm confused about those feet that are off the back end. There seems to be one for each row, and it runs on top of the row of beats. What is that mechanism doing? I presume the beet harvester has a wide knife that runs under the dirt. I'm presuming it runs underneath the bottom tips of the beets, loosening them, and bringing them to the surface to get them on an open chain belt back to the rotating device at the back. How deep is that knife running? Is it a stationary knife, or is it a vibratory knife?

[@Snowtruckdriver]

Doing the actual "Topping" of the beet to get the crown off.

[@delbutler885]

The beet harvester has puller wheels that lift the beets on each side of the row. The pieces on the back of the topping flail actually cut the top off of the beet before the lifter/ loader pulls the beets and knocks the dirt off and loads the beets in the truck

[@clintmeyer8029]

👍👍

[@casepower2335]

Better use a overloadwagon and let the trucks on the road, its mutch better for the soil

[@dontmakemelaugh01]

We seem to have been doing great for over 100 years with the current system. Don't fix what ain't broke.

[@scottrosevold3645]

the rubber fingers, are called rubber flails.

[@arthurs5704]

Where does all the trash go when the beet plants are cut before they are dug up. Also would a tractor towing a cart get through the fields better than a truck?

[@scottmonson5607]

Should video sugarbeet harvest by Fargo

[@bobnistler]

😎😎

[@DonWelter]

Sure wouldn't want to raise beets in stony ground. A lot of specialized high$$$ equipment!!! Always interesting to see different crops and cultural techniques.

[@KaerntnerLandwirtschaft]

You should really check out Europes Sugarbeet harvest especially norther germany. Less personal , less maschines and awesome logistics! :) keep it up

[@John-nc4bl]

The 'feederhouse' chute on that Holmer needs to be at least twice that width for faster delivery.

[@agrarvideomv162]

Hallo sehr intetesant wie ihr rüben rodet😲👍bei uns in deutschland haben selbstfahrer der marken grimme 6 reihen,holmer t3-5 mit bis zu 12 reihen und ropa mit bis zu 9 reihen.warum macht ihr das nicht auch so oder giebts keine selbstfahrer zu kaufen?🙋‍♂️gruß maik

[@lylestavast7652]

where is the processing plant nearest the Declo area these days ?

[@farmhandmike]

I believe they said just north of Burley.

[@lylestavast7652]

any reason they don't cut and chop the leafy part for sileage ? volume too low - not right nutrients for cattle/hogs ?

[@farmhandmike]

I'm not sure on the field value of it but they would have to drive over the beets to chop the silage first? Also nothing wrong with the leaves going back into the soil.

[@khalidestar3927]

Hello, is there an opportunity for training at your beautiful farm? I am very interested

[@mikezollner4380]

They freeze them in the pile in MN and ND

[@americanbeefranch]

Same here in Idaho. They harvest some early to feed the plant for a few weeks is all

[@dontmakemelaugh01]

They only freeze to a point. Hot spots will develope as the beets start to deteriorate and are stripped away and sent to the factory for immediate processing. Some beets are piled in large beet cellars that are ventilated to keep the beets fresher than those stored outside. Some of the larger piles outdoors are ventilated also but the housed beets keep better and are processed last , at the end of campaign.

[@christianhollauer881]

Why So early harvesting time (September)?

[@dontmakemelaugh01]

They are considered early beets. Each grower digs a certain percentage and they are sent to the factory for startup. Digging of regulars was supposed to start today but the rain put a nix on that.

[@xray606]

What is it about that area that makes it appropriate for taters and SBs? Kind of surprised they use trucks for a field move

[@americanbeefranch]

Volcanic silt loam soil. Highly developed irrigation system.

[@dontmakemelaugh01]

All those trucks , ten wheelers, and semis , are loaded in the field and take the beets to piling grounds . Offload them at a piler and then semis , most pulling dual trailers are loaded by a front-end loader, and the beets are hauled to the nearest factory for processing . Edit: unless they are loaded by the ropa. Then they are piled close to the fields of the farmer who has the ropa reserved for that time.

[@Farmerboykevin]

Do you have any potato harvesting videos

[@farmhandmike]

Yes a few

[@mattcaptein9626]

Trans systems

[@Bigballertwentythree]

Not being a jerk or a troll but you lift beets and dig potatoes and also you need to see a rock go thru one at night like someone threw a grinder in it..and when harvesting you can say beet off 2023

[@farmhandmike]

Hey I've heard people depending where they live say lift or dig, Kind of like corn harvest, some areas saying shelling corn, others say picking corn and some say cutting corn. Or like in parts of Texas where they often call any tillage tool a plow. Or in Northern Iowa and Minnesota they call a field cultivator a digger. There is no right or wrong a lot of these are references and pretty regional.

[@Bigballertwentythree]

Ya man I grow beets in the rra and im thinking your just saving your bacon on not knowing terms or proper slang for beets like rotabeeter or rubber fingers…rubber flails for moving trash off the row anywho have fun videoing I’m gonna leave now

[@scottmonson5607]

No safety pulls. Very unsafe.

[@John-nc4bl]

There is far too much 'alien' machinery appearing on our farms nowadays. Smarten up people and buy tractors, combines and a slew of other machines manufactured here and keep our workers employed. Our machines are every bit as good as that offshore stuff.

[@americanbeefranch]

Problem is paying John Deere 25 % more for the same farm equipment that breaks…

[@John-nc4bl]

True.@@americanbeefranch

[@berrypainter]

Where does the water come from, wells or surface water ?

[@farmhandmike]

Wells I'd say.

[@douglasbarnes1171]

Former Southern Idaho sugar beet farmer here. Some of Southern Idaho is well water and pivots. Some farms near there have Snake River water rights and and the pivots run off river water with no wells. @@farmhandmike

[@berrypainter]

Thanks. The beets are a very thirsty crop.@@farmhandmike

[@americanbeefranch]

Most crops in this particular area are grown with irrigation water stored in reservoirs. The water is put into the snake river and then diverted out at various points.

[@dontmakemelaugh01]

Depends on the location. Deep wells for those outside the canal system , or pumps deliver it from canal to pivots.