of spread the risk around a little bit,” explains Wikkerink. “Generally when everything else gets wiped out, the hail will defoliate the beet plants but they just grow right back from the roots.”
Harvest can be another challenge for a beet grower. Slow and steady is usually the mantra as custom diggers go through at about three miles per hour.
Wikkerink says beets really have to be grown in rotation with other crops, especially because his family farm has relatively few acres; only 3,000 acres. On the plus side they do have irrigation on all their land and can grow a wider variety of crops than many.
“Everyone uses a pretty similar type of digger,” says Wikkerink. “It’s like steel wheels that are angled to cut through the dirt and pinch at the back. It then kind of lifts up the dirt and beets and everything altogether. There is a kind of paddle that knocks them into the back and grab rows that clean the dirt out. The beets are probably six or seven inches in diameter; so they are fairly big. The soil is generally fairly moist; the wetter it is the tougher it is to get the dirt separated from them. There is actually a separate machine which cuts the leaves off first. Then the digger picks them, cleans them off and conveys them into the truck.”
Farming in general always has its challenges but
being diversified as we are, with growing a number of different crops, every year you hope there is at least one that does well.
“Beets are good in rotation,” explains Wikkerink. “You can only grow them once every four years on a particular quarter because you get disease issues. So it actually fits in nice with growing beans and grain in rotation with them. Our standard rotation is beets and then either wheat or durum and then beans and then wheat or durum and then beets again.”
Wikkerink says he still loves the beet business after all these years despite the challenges.
“I still really like it. Farming in general always has its challenges but being diversified as we are, with growing a number of
On Wikkerink Farms Ltd. they usually get about 25 tons worth of beets for every acre and that keeps the farm’s truckers hopping.
different crops, every year you hope there is at least one that does well. And that sort of protects you risk-wise if the price drops in, say, grain and the beets are a little more stable at the same time.”❚
Beet piles are a common sight in the late fall and winter months in southern Alberta.
WIKKERINK FARMS PHOTO Beets are an important annual crop in southern Alberta, and have been for over a century.
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