We Do the Sugar Beet Harvest...Say What?

Sugar beet pilers @ St Thomas, ND

     Before we were offered the hosting position at Colwell Lake late in June, we had sent in applications to work the sugar beet harvest in the Red River Valley along the North Dakota / Minnesota border. We decided that it would be a good way to supplement our retirement income. The extra income would allow us to avoid using any of our 401K funds or personal savings to fund vacation travels, NOMADS volunteer work projects travel and maintenance needs (tires for the truck, etc.) We had talked to friends of ours, Simon and Susan, that did the harvest in Sidney MT last fall. They said the work was hard, long hours, dirty and paid well. They also said they thought we would enjoy it. 

    Well around mid-July I received a call from Chad, head of the harvest in the Drayton district. We had an enjoyable conversation about the harvest and I was offered the chance to work as a foreman trainee this year based on my previous work experience in supervision. The seasonal workers are hired by Employment Express, which has an office in Grand Forks, ND. We were told to plan on reporting to them on Monday, Sept. 16th. The harvest hires both local seasonal workers and work-campers (those of us who travel with our RV's. The nice part of the deal, in addition to decent wages, is that Crystal Sugar pays for all of our full hook-up campsites. 

 Our campsite in Grafton, ND

 The park where we were camped

Part of the Disc Golf Course we played

     After we visited Employment Express in Grand Forks, where we received our orientation, we were assigned a campground in Grafton, ND. The site was nice and located a beautiful city park. The park was bordered by the Park River and had many flower gardens throughout. One enjoyable part was the Disc Golf course that we played several times.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

North Scale-house where Joyce worked @ St Thomas

 Trucks lined up 2 abreast at piler #1 

      The sugar beet industry in the RRV is huge. There are over 2800 farmers that have created a co-op that grow, harvest and process the sugar beets. There are around 430,000 acres of sugar beets planted in the RRV each season. The annual harvest is close to 11 million tons of sugar beets. There are something like 38 piling stations spread throughout the valley. Most piling stations have 2 pilers, while St Thomas where we worked had 4 pilers and at the Drayton factory there were 8 pilers. 

     The first 2 weeks we were doing pre-pile which is piling beets that are immediately transported to the sugar plant for current production needs. This time period gave us a chance to learn various piler jobs and I was able to get certified to operate the Skidsteer and pay loader as well.

      Joyce and I started the full harvest on Tuesday evening of October 2nd. The full harvest runs 24/7 thru the majority of the harvest which usually lasts around 3 weeks. We worked a 12 hour shift from 7pm to 7am due to Joyce being offered a position working the scales with Phyllis her partner. Phyllis is from the local area and has worked the scales for many years. Phyllis was a good trainer and she and Joyce had a good time together. My position was called Assistant Foreman, which as best I could tell was used to train you in a variety of positions at the station. Our foreman, Michelle, was a hard worker that treated her people well. I spent the first week mostly working on the ground at piler #1 due to staffing shortages. After that I did a variety of positions including relieving piler operators for breaks, working with the oiler/mechanic, Simon, lubing the pilers, relieving piler ground positions for breaks or shortages, testing for frozen beets when temps dropped too low, etc. Michelle spent time with me explaining the foreman's duties and various problems that may pop up. Our agriculturist, Rich, and Chad asked if we would be interested in coming back next year and would consider being a foreman. We will see what is offered...

     At this point we feel we will be back next year. We met a lot of nice people. The work was hard, challenging, and the hours long, but we feel that it is a great way to earn excellent wages for only a few weeks work. 

          We are happy to be home, but are very happy that we took the time to try out the sugar beet harvest in North Dakota. Another adventure we have enjoyed in retirement.