At this year’s International Sugarbeet Institute, NDSU Extension unveiled a new custom-designed research sugarbeet harvester. “We wanted to improve the quality of our data,” said NDSU/University of Minnesota Extension Sugarbeet Agronomist Tom Peters. “In research, quality of data is always number one.” With a more efficient operation, the number of staff needed to harvest went from nine people to only five with the new machine. Compared to the previous harvester which was built in the 1960s, the new technology has modern electronics.”We harvest two rows at a time, but our data is separate, so we keep row one separate from row two. We have two different individual estimates of our plot yields, and all of our data is electronic; everything is captured directly into the computer.”
