While there were plenty of interesting things to see at the Amalgamated Sugar Field Day in Paul, Idaho, earlier this month, perhaps one of the most interesting was the root pit.
Amalgamated Sugar dug the root pit just prior to the field day to offer a visual representation of root growth in the sugarbeet crop at the Amalgamated test field near the Paul factory.
This set of photos show the root pit and a handful of exposed sugarbeets. A couple of the beets were showing root maggot infestation, which you can see in the photo below. Another spot showed an ungerminated beet seed.
We have a video of the presentation given at the root pit during the field day. The video is over on our Sugar Producer Facebook page.