Sugarbeet industry veterans talk about how 'really different' farming used to be

FARGO, N.D. — Massive and technologically advanced equipment of modern sugarbeet production filled much of the floor of the Fargodome during the International Sugar Beet Institute, including things like 12-row harvesters, drones and tools built to use artificial intelligence to complete tasks that once had to be completed by human force. Nearby, the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Museum had relics of the past — like a beet thinner, a horse-drawn harvester and the first mechanical harvesters which dug only one row at a time.

And just across the aisle from the museum exhibit, the ISBI presented living history in the form of four men with long experiences and memories in how sugarbeet production used to be. A standing-room only crowd of close to 200 gathered on March 20, 2025, during the show to listen and learn from Allen Dragseth, Delano Thoreson, Roger Odegaard and Allan Cattanach about the past and future of sugarbeet farming on a panel emceed by Michael Dusek , better known as YouTuber "Beet Farmin' Mitch."

Dragseth, Thoreson and Odegaard are retired sugarbeet farmers from the Red River Valley, while Cattanach was an agronomist for North Dakota State University, University of Minnesota and American Crystal Sugar, along with being a consultant on sugarbeets in Ukraine and Russia , "though that's kind of dried up," he told the crowd.

Dragseth said he's retired now and a "city slicker," but his family this year produced its 100th crop of sugarbeets north of Albert, Minnesota. He now is the force behind the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Museum, in Crookston, Minnesota, where in the second weekend in September, they harvest beets with "these old, vintage pieces of equipment," he said.

Thoreson said his family started growing sugarbeets in 1951, also near Albert, and "things were really different — really, really different."

"In 1951, you could not get a get a contract from American Crystal unless you had permissions to have a mechanical harvester," he said.

He explained that the only beets harvested by Nov. 1, 1950, had been ones topped by truck drivers, because the migrant labor that typically harvested the beets hadn't shown up for the season as they had before.

"So American Crystal had to do something," he said. "So they made provisions that you can't get a contract on this unless you have made arrangements to mechanical harvest."

His father was "a John Deere guy," and John Deere already had sold their 16 harvesters. But when the dealership heard Thoreson's dad was going to buy an International M instead, they came up with a 17th machine.

"So we've been on it for a while," he said.

As the panel discussed multigerm versus monogerm seed, Dragseth realized he needed to do some explaining for the younger members of the crowd.

"The early seed, several plants would come up from each seed, and then they'd have to crawl along on their hands and knees. My mother tells me of doing it, grab one plant and then dig the pick out the best looking plant, and then dig the others away, and then crawl up to the next," he said. "And when it came with monogerm seed, only one plant came up from the seed."

The farmers explained further that they still had to plant a lot of seeds to ensure a good stand, then thin out the excess plants.

"And eventually, now we've gotten with planting to stand and not even thinning. A lot of the young guys, I found out don't even know what these thinners are, because we quit using them about 30 years ago," Dragseth said.

But he's got some old seed around if anyone wants to try it.

"If anybody's interested in some 1966 sugarbeet seed, we've got three full bags brought into the museum this winter. We did a germination test, and we got zero," Dragseth said, spurring laughter from the crowd.

The men talked about the evolution of herbicides, with Cattanach calling early chemicals used in sugarbeets "make-believe herbicides."

"They really weren't very good," he said.

"I attribute a lot of the increase in yields that you guys have got now to Roundup," Dragseth said.

Finding adequate labor also has been a big need in sugarbeet farming since the early days.

"There wasn't anything better for the sugarbeet business than good migrant labor. We were very fortunate. We had the nicest family. We had five houses on the farm and two single-bedroom homes. They all lived in there, and to this day, some of that family we had back in those days are my Facebook friends," Thoreson said.

Odegaard's family has been raising sugarbeets for more than 100 years, starting with his grandfather growing 17 acres. Over the years, they used a variety of labor, including from neighbor kids. But labor was "impossible to get" during World War II, he explained, and some farmers used prisoners of war .

"My dad got five, and they were housed in the skating arena in Crookston, and you'd go and pick them up, and they'd have a bag, sack lunch, and they'd work the day, and then my dad would take him back to the arena," Odegaard said. "Well, anyway, when they got through working in the spring, my dad decided to go and buy them lunch. So they went in the cafe to have lunch, and you weren't supposed to feed the prisoners. And somebody turned my dad in, and he wasn't going to get labor for the next year because he treated the labor too good."

And he has a vivid memory of what working on the farm meant to the POWs.

"When my dad brought these German prisoners home for the first time, one guy, there was five of them, and they crawled out of the car, and I come out of the house, and the guy started crying, the tears just rolled down his face," he recalled. "I run out to my dad, and the guy looked at me, and I thought, 'Geez, can I be that ugly?' But anyway, I'm sure it brought back some memories of his home, family life. And the prisoners that were here were happy to be here because nobody was shooting at him, and they knew they'd get home sometime."

He also recalled Mexican laborers coming by box car.

"And that was really quite an experience, because they didn't speak English, and my parents and my grandfather didn't speak Spanish, and you had to get all their groceries and everything bring to them," he said.

Also during the war, his father went to the White Earth Reservation, in Mahnomen, Minnesota, and hired workers. After getting them set up in the bunkhouse with groceries and other necessities, Odegaard's father went out the next morning to find that his workers had walked back to Mahnomen rather than stay to work on the farm.

Cattanach served on the Governor's Council for Farm Labor in 1975, which gave him some insight into just how important migrant labor had been.

"There were over 15,000 migrants working in the Red River Valley in 1975 on virtually every farm for weed control, and they still did some thinning from time to time," he said.

The panel talked about the many improvements made to sugarbeet production, through better equipment and through research and agronomy. They mentioned agronomists and researchers, including with Cattanach, who were a "part of this puzzle" of making sugarbeets better, while they didn't "reap the rewards from it."

"I think that that's forgotten a lot a lot of times, how important part that they played in raising and moving forward with sugarbeets," Odegaard said.

The panel also reflected on the early days of ISBI. Cattanach was involved in establishing the show, which started out in Crookston. Dragseth recalls an early educational seminar of the impact of hail on beet leaves, "well in my opinion, hail damages the crown more than it does the leaves."

ISBI has continued from those early days with 63 annual shows, now held alternating between Fargo and Grand Forks. In 2026, the show will merge with Northarvest Bean Growers Association's Bean Day . A large percentage of farmers who grow sugarbeets also grow dry beans in the region, making the crops a good fit for a combined show.

The crowd reluctantly dispersed as the panel ended, but gems of wisdom from the experienced producers should stick around for a while. The men expressed strong concern about the amount of soil blown off fields in the Red River Valley and said strip tillage is worth considering.

"I shouldn't preach, because I'm not a farmer anymore, but I think that the growers should look at more at the strip tilling, because this working the ground two, three, four times in the fall and then ridging it, and then in the spring, you knock the ridges off, you plant, or you seed the cover crop to keep it from blowing," Dragseth said. "If you strip till your fields, you got the stubble, but you only do it one time in the fall and plant right into it in the spring. My son got a strip till there about six, seven years ago, and it really works good. I know there could be more of them, but I think people are getting fed up with all this dirt blowing in the winter and it'd be a good public relations if nothing else."

Dusek said he'll probably always remember one of Thoreson's quips, that the "hardest thing about growing sugarbeets is getting them out of the ground in the spring and getting them out of the ground in the fall."

"And it's funny because it's so true. You know, when you plant those tiny seeds in the spring, you hope that you can get that into them, into that moisture, but sometimes it's dry and there isn't. But you know, if you can get that crop out of the ground, there's a good chance that they'll make it to harvest, but that's a whole 'nother thing," he said. "You got to get them out of the ground during harvest, because sometimes it's muddy and sometimes it's very difficult to get them out of the ground, but you have to. There's only a short window to do that. So that was, I think, really impactful for me today as a farmer."

Dusek, who held a few practice panels with the four men prior to the main event, said he's learned a lot about how sugarbeet production has gotten easier through listening to the stories from their lifetimes, as well as what they know from the people who came before them.

"Their grandparents grew beets back in the '20s, '30s, '40s, '50s — and just to hear how much labor it was, how much work it was, and how far the sugarbeet industry and technology in agriculture has come over the years is amazing," he said. "To just hear those stories of them having to, hands and knees, thinning the beets out, going through all those different processes just to get the crop that they needed. It really brings thankfulness for all the people that have helped pioneer in the sugarbeet industry and in agriculture. And I'm just very thankful I get to see that."

Dusek farms near Grafton and also documents life on a modern farm on his YouTube channel. He tries to provide a link to agriculture to people who may be several generations removed from having family on the farm themselves.

"I think it's really important that people know where their food comes from, know that it's family farms here growing food, that we're doing our best. And so that's that's really important to me, that people see — if they want — the day-to-day life on a farm and some of the agricultural good things we do, and some of the struggles and hard times that we have as well," he said.