Meet the Sugarbeet Farmers
Meet the Farmers
Let’s take a closer look at step one of the agriculture system: producing plants.
Did you know that some sugars come from vegetables? It’s true! Mike and Alex Petersen are father and son sugarbeet farmers in Southwest Minnesota.
Sugarbeets are planted in the spring, and harvested in the fall. For every pound of seed Mike and Alex plant, they can harvest 80,000 pounds of sugarbeets!
Each fall, sugarbeet plants get “topped.” This means the green leaves at the top of the sugarbeet get chopped off. Next the sugarbeets are “lifted”, which means the sugarbeet gets pulled out of the ground by a special tractor. Next, dirt gets shaken off, and the sugarbeets are loaded onto a semi-truck to be taken to a special factory to be processed into sugar.
Learn more from the Petersens
Growing sugarbeets is hard work! Mike and Alex problem solve every day. We sure enjoy the sugar that comes from those sugarbeets in our breakfast cereal, soda pop and snacks!
Photos courtesy of Mike and Alex Petersen