REESE, Mich.—The Bauer family knows sugarbeets.
“It’s what we do and it's who we are,” says Charles Bauer.
After all, “Bauer” in German means farmer.
“Farmed with dad and then my two brothers and dad and now the boys are in the business,” says Bauer.
42 years and this is one of the best seasons he has ever seen.
“We started out very late in the spring getting this stuff in the ground and never would have dreamed to be harvesting this type of crop,” says Bauer.
LaRacha averages 26 tons-per-acre in a good year but in a great year it's 30 tons-per-acre.
“It’s just been amazing,” says Bauer.
The stroke of luck is all thanks to Mother Nature.
“We didn't have the extreme summer heat, we didn't have the long dry spell and we had lots of rainêtimely rain,” says Bauer.
From the LaRacha fields, the beets are now headed to The Michigan Sugar Company in Bay City to be sliced but first they have to finish getting the beets out of the ground before harvest time ends.
“It was in the ground for nearly a month less than we would like and yielding better than we ever could've expected,” says Bauer.
Source: www.minbcnews.com