| LARIMORE, N.D. (AP) -- Joe Davis is one of thousands who
have enlisted in the small army that takes sugar beets off the land in the
Red River Valley each fall.
Most use vacation time not only to earn extra money, but to soak up the
culture of the land and the harvest.
Davis loves it so much that he bought a $240 airplane ticket to come
here from Spokane, Wash., to work the harvest for grower Terry Stadstad.
Davis also is using 16 of his allotted 30 days of vacation time.
This is Davis' third campaign with Stadstad, who works 950 beet acres.
" A lot of guys wait for hunting season, " Davis says. "
I don' t hunt. This is my time to do what I like."
Money is part of the motivation. Drivers routinely make $10 to $12 an
hour and work 12-hour shifts each day. If the weather cooperates and there
is no down time, drivers can earn up to $1, 000 a week.
The work may be routine, but it also carries a sense of freedom and
novelty.
Davis is among an estimated 10, 000 seasonal workers hired by American
Crystal Sugar Co. growers to drive trucks and operate field equipment.
An additional 1, 300 workers are hired by American Crystal to staff its
38 piling stations in the Red River Valley.
While individual growers make their own hires, Express Personnel
Services lines up the workers for the piling stations.
It' s a struggle to find enough help, says Chris Greenberg of Express
Personnel. He says about 40 percent of the hires come from outside the
valley for the jobs, which pay between $8.50 and $11 an hour.
The number of workers needed in the fields or at the piling stations
depends upon the length of the harvest. In 1999, dry and moderate weather
meant the harvest was completed in 13 days.
But in the wet fall of 1998, the harvest ran five weeks, until Nov. 7.
Stadstad' s 10-person temporary crew is a prime example of how the
seasonal workers come from a cross-section of life.
In addition to Davis, his temporary help includes an Amazon.com
computer manager, an armored truck guard, a rural mail carrier, a retired
farmer and rancher, a fuel oil delivery man and custom haulers. In his
40-plus harvests, he' s had air base personnel, University of North Dakota
students and workers from every walk of life.
" It used to be easy long ago. You' d just round up your
neighbors' sons and daughters to help out, " said Stadstad, 57.
" Now, I have to go a long way to find a neighbor who is still
farming."
The beet harvest requires seasonal help because it' s an all-out
sprint. American Crystal calls it the fastest harvest of the largest crop
in the United States.
Nowhere else, Crystal spokesman Jeff Schweitzer says, are 10 million
tons of a commodity taken off the land in two to three weeks. With perfect
weather, the entire crop can be lifted in 10 to 14 days.
As temperatures cool in September, the plant adds sugar so it can stay
alive longer. Growers want to take the beet at the peak of its sugar
storage. If it experiences a couple of hard frosts, the plant will burn
the stored sugar, lowering the value.
If the harvest runs too late, beets can freeze in the field. So it' s
important to get it harvested quickly.
With about 1, 600 farming units, the executive director of the Red
River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association estimates the seasonal hires at
10, 000.
" The challenge is to end the harvest before their vacation time
runs out and they head back to work, " Mark Weber said. |