Wahmhoff, co-owner of Lake Superior Tree Farm, said the idea for the sugarbeet operation grew out of another new crop, spring wheat, which he began growing a few years ago.
"We needed products for crop rotation," he said.
On a visit to the Red River Valley in the Grand Forks, N.D., area, which has a climate and soils similar to the Keweenaw, he learned that many farmers there rotated sugar beets with wheat.
"They grow a phenomenal amount of sugarbeets for Crystal Sugar," he said.
The sugar market isn't a viable option here because of shipping costs, he said, but he knew beets were imported to the Keweenaw from lower Michigan for deer feed, and figured those same shipping costs could give him a competitive advantage in that market.
"I decided it would be a good thing for our area to do," he said.
Mike Shira, Michigan State University extension educator, said growing sugarbeets successfully probably isn't as easy as it sounds, though as long as supplemental deer feeding is allowed, there should be large market.
"Bob is pretty experienced, he'll probably be successful," Shira said. "But I doubt there will be many others that'll have the time and investment it'll take."
Shira said sugarbeets might also be viable on a smaller scale, using a modified potato digger.
For the past two summers, Wahmhoff grew beets experimentally, learning the ins and outs of the crop, which he says requires lots of nutrition and lots of water. Lack of a beet lifter, an industrial picker to harvest his crop, kept him from getting serious, however.
Finally, his western mentor helped him find a used lifter in Crookston, Minn., which turned out to be only half the battle. The lifter still had to be dismantled for shipping on a flatbed truck, permits pulled as it was still an oversized load, and the route changed to accommodate that size.
Wahmhoff didn't want to say what he paid for the 12-year-old digger. But a comparable brand-new model would run about $100,000, he said.
Once the lifter is driven to the end of a row, Wahmhoff said, a GPS system drives from there using data entered when the beets are planted. Get just a few inches off course and lifting disks will slice beets instead of picking them up.
"I think it works great," said David Paquin, a part-time farm worker who helped with last year's experimental crop as well as this year's harvest. "It beats doing them by hand."
Wahmhoff's next step, he said, will be purchasing a bagger to make it easier to package sugarbeets for distribution to retailers, particularly gas stations that sell beets to hunters. Currently, he said, he's selling hand-bagged beets at the Tree Farm in Chassell and at his wife's business, Maggie's Massage Spa Resort in Houghton, for $4 per 30-35 pound bag. He's also selling truckloads by the pound - call 523-6200.
Wahmhoff said he's also trying to open up new markets. He said some horse owners already supplement their feed with sugarbeets, and he's going to be working with at least one beef and dairy cow farmer this winter to see how cattle respond to the beets.
Source: www.miningjournal.net