Country
Friday, April 19, 2019 • Edition 5
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Focusing on Today’s Rural Environment
Sweet rewards PHOTO COURTESY OF SUGAR PRODUCER MAGAZINE/HARRIS PUBLISHING
The sugarbeet root contains a high concentration of sucrose, which is grown commercially for sugar production. When fully grown, a sugarbeet is about a foot long and weighs two to five pounds.
PHOTO BY LAURA HINTZEN
Craig Herickhoff stands by a planter April 8 at his farm near Belgrade, where he has raised sugarbeets since 2008. In March, Herickhoff was presented with a national award for having the most recoverable sugar per acre, from his co-op average to his best field of sugarbeets.
Herickhoffs’ sugar beets best in U.S. By LAURA HINTZEN Staff Writer
BELGRADE – Sugar is sweet, and so is recognition for hard work. Craig Herickhoff, a sugarbeet grower out of Belgrade, produces a commodity that sweetens some of the most common products people purchase around the nation. “Our sugar can be found in all of Subway’s cookies, Sunbelt granola bars and Hershey’s,” Herickhoff said. Now, Herickhoff can also say his and wife, Michelle’s, sugarbeets are the best in the U.S. In early March, the Herickhoffs were announced the winners of the 2018 National Sugar Bounty Program at the 2019 American Sugarbeet Growers Association Annual Meeting in Scottsdale, Ariz. The award is presented to a sugarbeet grower who has had the most recoverable
sugar per acre, from his co-op average to his best field of sugarbeets. Herickhoff learned about this award last year while browsing through a monthly sugarbeet magazine and decided to fill out the form for it. Not long after, he received a phone call that he was selected amongst seven other regional winners throughout the United States. “We were invited down to the Annual Sugar Growers Association meeting for a three-day event in Scottsdale to meet face to face with other leaders to learn more about the complex issues that the sugar beet industry is facing,” Herickhoff said. All eight winners stood on stage and received regional awards and waited anxiously as the national winner was announced. That winner was the Herickhoffs. They were gifted the prestigious award, along with a John Deere Gator. During the event, Herickhoff had the opportunity to engage in special ac-
This month in the
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PHOTO BY LAURA HINTZEN
Craig Herickhoff holds a handful of sugarbeet seeds April 8 at his farm near Belgrade. Each seed is planted an inch to an inch-and-a-half deep into the ground at a density of 57,000 seeds per acre.
tivities, listen to interesting speakers and panel discussions on the program. “It’s fun to rub shoulders with the other people that are in the same business as you and are open to sharing their knowledge with you,” Herickhoff said. Herickhoff has been a long-time grower, beginning to grow sugarbeets, corn and soybeans with his dad in 2008. In the 11 years that he has been in
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business, acreage and profitability have been all over the map. “Usually we shoot for 1,500 acres of sugarbeets. Last year was tough though,” Herickhoff said. “We had a good growing year, but our beet co-op, Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative in Renville,
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HERICKHOFF continued on page 2
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