Sugar beet industry ready for harvest

Despite tight labor markets in the Upper Midwest, leaders of the sugar beet industry say there should be enough crews Wednesday when this year's harvest begins in earnest.

Sugar beet growers need hundreds of truck drivers to take the beets from fields to storage sites, and sugar processing companies need hundreds more to move the beets from the trucks to storage piles.

Timing is critical, because the beets will spoil if they are harvested too early when the weather is still warm, and they'll be difficult to remove from the ground and stockpile if harvested too late when the ground is frozen.

That means the main harvest is short and intense, compressed into 14 to 20 days, depending on the weather.

"We've averted the worker shortage, but there certainly is one," said Brian Ingulsrud, vice president of agriculture at American Crystal Sugar Co. in Moorhead. "I think the job's going to get done, but it's getting more difficult each year to find the employees to get it done."

Minnesota is the nation's leader in sugar beet production, followed by North Dakota, Idaho and Michigan. American Crystal, the nation's largest sugar beet producer, alone supplies more than 10 percent of the nation's refined sugar.

Ingulsrud said the company needs about 1,300 seasonal workers during the first three weeks of October when most of the crop is harvested.

Those stockpiles will supply the factory with beets to process into sugar through the winter.

Nick Sinner, executive director of the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association, said that it has been difficult, but most growers have been able to hire truck drivers to get their crops to market. "Our growers talk a lot about the need for good drivers," he said. "They're being affected obviously by the draw to western north Dakota where lots of people have gone for work and for good wages."

Sinner said oil-related jobs have certainly reduced the available labor force in the Red River Valley, but sugar beet growers have still managed to assemble crews that have adequate training and experience.

"We have 410,000 acres that we need to harvest this fall from 850 farming operations, all running 24/7" during the first half of October, he said. "That puts a lot of trucks on the road and a lot of people in the fields."

Sinner said he didn't know whether growers had to increase pay for drivers this year because of the tight labor force, and that those matters are negotiated privately.

That means he's scrambling a bit since he needs eight drivers, but Zurn said last-minute hiring isn't unusual.

"To get decent short-term help, it's always been somewhat of a challenge, but worse the last couple of years," he said. "Maybe some of the younger guys went out west to the oil fields."

Todd Geselius, vice president of agriculture for the Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative in Renville, said that getting enough qualified workers for the harvest season is always a concern, and this year was no exception. Many places in rural Minnesota have a low unemployment rate, he said.

"It looks like we will have enough labor to do what we want, but we won't have any extra," Geselius said. "As for our growers, I can't really speak for them but my sense is they are in about the same shape as we are."