Here is another installment in our continuing lesson on sugar beets. In a previous post from April, we saw how small the beets were. Our lesson continues with the irrigation of sugar beets. The area we live in is extremely dry and the only way to grow most crops is through irrigation.
We can see now that the beets have grown enough to cover the rows. They have grown big leaves on top while the beet is growing underneath the ground. Now is the time that they need plenty of water for growth and to help develop the sugar that is forming inside the root of the beet.
We use ditches to irrigate our crops. Some of these ditches are larger than rivers or streams. Ditches have names, such as The Big Ditch, The Italian Ditch, and The Cove Ditch. The ditch used to irrigate these particular beets is The Big Ditch. This ditch comes from water diverted from the Yellowstone River.
This is a headgate. It is a pipe which passes water from the ditch to the field. The handle on top of the headgate is used to turn the headgate on or off, just like a spigot is used to turn water on or off from a faucet.
The water flow from the headgate into the gated irrigation pipe which can be made from metal or plastic. We are using plastic pipe on this field. You can see from the picture that we are letting water flow down every other row. Sugar beets are not irrigated in every row but in every other row.
The pipe is called gated irrigation pipe because the water flows from the pipe to the rows via openings called gates. The gates can be opened to allow water to flow out or closed to stop the flow of water. Sometimes farmers place a plastic "sock" over the opening so the water does not erode the ground as it flows from the pipe. This particular gate does not 
have a sock.
This last shot is looking down on a sugar beet. You can see how the leaves grow out from the center. The root of the sugar beet is growing as well, which is why the ground is cracking out from the center of the plant. These beets have small holes in the leaves from a hailstorm which happened a few weeks ago. Fortunately the hail was very small and it only put small holes in the leaves. Some hailstorms can wipe out entire fields.
Fascinating class, teacher! Questions: WHY do you only irrigate every other row? HOW in the heck do you open and close all those tiny gates?
Posted by: Patia | July 17, 2005 at 11:41 PM
I will have to ask the "professional farmer" about irrigating every other row. I think I know why but I'm not sure if it is the correct reason or not.
The gates are not that tiny. I probably should have posted a picture that shows the pipe in proportion to a hand. Normally they just slide back and forth but if the water pressure in the pipe is strong, the gates can be very difficult to open.
Thanks for the questions, Patia. I'm glad you enjoyed my lesson. :-)
Posted by: Pandora | July 18, 2005 at 07:35 AM
OK!
This is great, you know. You could probably freelance this somewhere ...
Posted by: Patia | July 20, 2005 at 03:34 AM
Oh and I have the getting the gated pipe to the field lesson here!
Which will be followed up shortly.
Posted by: moos | July 21, 2005 at 03:41 PM
Being agriculturally challenged, I found this to very interesting.
Thanks!
Posted by: Jim - PRS | July 24, 2005 at 08:26 AM
I have an organic farm in Michigan (where there are quite a few sugar beet plantations)and think it would be fun to grow a few sugar beets for our farm families. How much space do they need and how big does the actual beet get?
I hear they get as big as boulders.
(1 ft x 1 ft) is this true?
Where do you get some seed (non genetically modified please)
Posted by: Mary LaFrance | January 24, 2006 at 07:40 AM