Heap of sugar(beets)

Anyone walking through the open land here in the autumn, from mid-September to mid-November, will undoubtedly come across such heaps of beets along the hardened road. Always along a hardened road because heavy trucks do not venture onto cart tracks. This is the time of the beet campaign. The sugar beets that have been harvested are ready to be transported to the sugar factory, e.g., in Dinteloord, by enormous trucks. Mud tracks on the roadway are often evidence of this. Beets cannot withstand frost; therefore, they are sometimes covered if necessary, but the farmer prefers that they are picked up quickly because quality loss also means a lower yield.

The yield from one hectare is about 78 tons, from which 13 tons of sugar can be produced. Large numbers, but to make it clearer: almost 8 kg of beets can be harvested from one square meter, and that same square meter thus produces 1.3 kg of sugar.

Manwan