What’s a Beet Harvester?

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A beet harvester is a large agricultural piece of machinery designed specifically to harvest ripe beets from a field. They are quite large, about the same size as combines and harvesters, as they are designed to harvest beets from industrial-sized beet farms. A harvester can be driven or pulled behind a tractor. Like many agricultural machines, the beet harvester is complex and requires many parts to operate. Typically, this includes a vehicle, topper, beet harvesting mechanism, conveyor belt, and holding box.

The smallest beet harvesters are pulled by a tractor. A larger harvester, however, can be a vehicle itself. In this case, it must have the capability of a tractor, including the ability to maneuver several tons of machinery and crops.

Before harvesting, the beet is separated from the foliage by a topper, a trimming mechanism that cuts off the leafy green tops of the beet. Typically, the green is mashed, chopped or sliced ​​and returned to the ground. The topper needs to be adjusted to remove just the right amount of foliage. Too little and parts of the leaves and stems will stick to the beets. Too much and the topper will remove some of the beetroot, reducing your yield.

The capped beets are then pulled out of the earth with two wheels, placed side by side at an angle. When the wheels roll over a beet, the shape of the beet causes the angle of the wheels to move back, pulling the beet along with it. The depth of penetration and the width of the wheels can be adjusted. Row spacing varies from farm to farm, depending on the equipment used to plant the beets, and the harvester needs to be able to accommodate a variety of row widths.

After the beet has been topped and picked off the ground, it is passed onto a conveyor belt. The main purpose of the tape is to transfer the beet into the holding crate, but sometimes the tapes are also designed to shake excess dirt off the vegetable. The operator harvests the beets until the holding box is full, after which the beets must be transferred to another vehicle.

Industrial-sized reapers typically work four to nine rows at a time, depending on the machine itself. In some cases, rows are not planted evenly or straight, but the beet harvester can be rigged to accommodate for small discrepancies. In-cab computer terminals allow the driver to adjust the machine without stopping the beet harvester or leaving the cab.

Some beet pickers use a global positioning system (GPS) to determine the picker’s course. The beet harvester follows the programmed path, allowing the operator to focus his attention on the harvest. If problems occur with harvesting, the operator is more likely to notice them if he is not focused solely on steering the harvester.

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