By Tom Peters
Thanks to a partnership involving several groups, a new, custom-built sugarbeet harvester is now in the hands of researchers at North Dakota State University and the University of Minnesota.
The new harvester’s development and purchase is a collaboration between NDSU, the University of Minnesota, the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), the Sugar Beet Research and Education board, allied industry partners and growers.
The new harvester was unveiled at the International Sugarbeet Institute on March 19 at the Fargodome with representatives from the collaborative partners in attendance.
“This is a partnership between the universities and other groups, including farmers and allied industry partners,” says Tom Peters, NDSU Extension sugarbeet agronomist. “All the groups pooled their resources together for this project.”
“This is a great success story of collaboration between the universities, private industry and growers,” says Ross Pape, Sugarbeet Research and Education Board president. “Everyone involved recognized the need to continue world class sugar-beet research right here in the valley, and providing researchers with a modern, sophisticated and reliable harvester is where it all starts.”
The need for a new harvester for research was clear. The previous machine was commercially built in the 1950s and modified for research in 1996. Peters said equipment breakdowns have become more frequent, and finding replacement parts has become more difficult.
The benefits will be immediate — a much more efficient harvest being the main one. It will also potentially cut the amount of manpower needed for harvest in half, Peters said. The new harvester will also improve the ability to collect data that is analyzed by the various groups.
Improving the accuracy and capability of research also affects farmers in the region.
“Sugarbeet growers in North Dakota and Minnesota depend on our Extension programming for data-based recommendations,” says Eric Branch, NDSU Extension sugarbeet specialist. “Without data from replicated field trials, we couldn’t do our job in the areas of weed, insect and disease management.”
“The new harvester will help us conduct our research accurately and efficiently. While in-season ratings such as leaf spot severity are important, we also want to look at the same metrics that our stakeholders use — such as yield, sugar percentage and revenue per acre — that can help sugarbeet growers run their farms effectively.”
To read the full story about the sugarbeet harvester’s journey to completion, visit ndsu.ag/harvester.
Source : ndsu.edu