Sugar and Fodder Beets for Stock and Sucrose

Three Classes of Field Beets  Mangels (Mangolds, Mangel-Wurzel)  Fodder Beets  True Sugar Beets

History of Field Beet Cropping  Development in 17 th and 18 th century  Resulted in the “Gin Craze”  Used as an alternate sugarmaking stock in France under Napoleon  Now a major source of sugar and ethanol stock worldwide

Our Project Objectives:  Evaluate several non-GMO varieties for crop performance in an organic, diversified small farm setting  Develop a method of storing and processing beets, both for stock feed and value-added applications  Evaluate quality and marketability of final products and potential impacts on farm viability

Objective #1: Cropping  2010: Cropped 5 tons of mangels (red mammoth and yellow cylindrical) on ¼ acre.  2011: Planted 1 acre beet trial plot. Heavy spring rains rotted 80% the seedbed. Plot abandoned.  2012: Planted 1 acre beet trial plot on better-drained land. Heavy spring rains rotted 40% of the seedbed. Plot carried through to harvest

Field Beet general growing practices  Seed early (April if possible)  Seek a well drained location, but beets grow in a range of soil types  Thin to one beet per row feet  Harvest in November for the highest weight and sugar content  Field beet classes vary in their ease of harvest  On-farm winter storage of large quantities of beets is easily accomplished with a clamp

Our Non-GMO trial varieties VarietyYield per Acre, tons Sugar content at harvest Extracted juice sugar content Notes Scottish Fodder Beet %17%Easiest harvest Shumway's Giant Half Sugar Type %22%Strongest germination Monsterbuck Non- GMO deer bait sugar beet %21%Weakest all-around performer Betaseed experimenal energy beet # %22%

Storing and Feeding Field Beets  Use a “Clamp.”  Feed beets whole or chop  Process with a juicer and dry expelled pulp

Nutritional Properties of Field Beets Dietary Dry Matter Total Digestible Nutrients Crude Protein (DDM Basis) Neutral Detergent Fiber (DDM Basis) Acid Detergent Fiber (DDM Basis) Sugarbeet Pulp 26.1% Whole Root23.8% Whole Tops36.7%

Our Attempted Sugar Making  Diffusion method - slicing and steeping  Centrifuge method –using a large vegetable juicer

Sugarmaking, Part 2  Boiling (similar to maple syrup) to crystalization temperature  Pan seeding  Cleaning and evaluation of crystals

What We Learned  Field beets are a fairly easy grow if you have well- drained soil, but thinning and harvest are demanding  Non-GMO field beets had yields and nutritional parameters within standard national (GMO) ranges in an organic system  Non-GMO beet pulp is a possible value-added crop, if a drying system is available  Sugarmaking is challenging due to persistent off- flavors we were unable to eliminate  Distallation was also unsuccesful due to difficulty efficiently eliminating beet solids and the same persistent off-flavors that troubled our sugarmaking.

Why I still think that there is money in beets after all beets have put me through  1 acre of beets: approximately 40,000 lbs  Average sugar content of sugar beets: 16%  Lbs theoretical sugar per acre: 6400  Cost of fancy crystal table sugar per lb: $3  Potential value-added, per acre: $19200  Cost of a fifth of microdistilled vodka: $25  Potential fifths of vodka per acre: 3200  Potential farm/microdistillery revenue per acre:$80,000  Dry beet pulp per acre: 4,000 lbs  Cost of “Speedi Beet” per lb: $1  Potential revenue from dry beet pulp per acre: $4000