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FMH InsureCast brings you the latest from FMH and the industry to help navigate the expansive crop and farm insurance landscape. Topics include new products to leverage crop insurance within your risk management plan, and helpful tips from FMH staff and industry experts to stay informed on industry developments.
Welcome to FMH Insurecast, a podcast created by Farmers Mutual Hail designed to deliver expertise and insights from trusted FMH team members and industry experts. Each new episode will dive into new products, industry updates, and innovative solutions. Let's get to today's topic.
Speaker 2:Hello, everyone. Welcome to this very special episode of, FMH Insurecast. I'm Dave DeCapp. It's November, and we're heading to the holidays, which is a great time to think about all the crops that crop insurance program protects, of course, and that we're able to enjoy as a big part of our celebrations as we enter into the holidays this time of year. You might remember our episode about cranberries last year.
Speaker 2:It was about, about a year ago this time actually. And, this year, we're covering an important crop and a major staple, which has grown mainly in the in the North country in The US. I think we'll get to this with our guests. But I think it's about from Idaho over to Michigan, I think, I think is where this crop is. You can mainly find it in the crop, of course, is sugar beets.
Speaker 2:Today, we're fortunate to have two guests on which we can rely to give us all the insights into this unique crop. And, coincidentally, they both work also for FMH. So our first guest is Sarah Ehrenholz. Sarah is a field claims supervisor out of Minnesota, and Andrew Sather is a sales manager out of, the Fargo Moorhead area. But let's bring them on now and, let them tell you a little bit about themselves.
Speaker 2:Hey, guys. How are doing?
Speaker 3:Good. Thanks for having us.
Speaker 2:Alright. Alright. Alright. Alright, Sarah. Let's let's start with you.
Speaker 2:Can you can you tell us a little bit about about yourself, about what you do at FMH, but also as a farmer?
Speaker 4:Sure. So as you mentioned, Dave, my role in FMH, I am a field claims supervisor in West Central Minnesota. Been with FMH for a long time now, one of the best AIPs out there. And as far as what we do for farming, we, of course, raise sugar beets. We have corn, soybeans, edible beans, and then we custom raise swine or pigs also.
Speaker 4:So love having the crossover today, and thanks for having us.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Great to to have you here. Looking forward to the conversation. Andrew, if you could do the same?
Speaker 3:Yes. Andrew Sather is my name. I live in Morehead, Minnesota. District sales manager for FMHA covered North Dakota and also northern parts of Minnesota. Been part of a family farm for as long as I can remember, and part of our farming operation has been sugar beets.
Speaker 3:So glad to be on the Insurecast.
Speaker 2:All right, we got the experts from three sixty degrees for this crop. So I'm looking forward to it. We'll we'll get into the crop insurance side a little later because obviously our audience, I personally, I think it's it's very interesting in how crop insurance works with sugar beets. But if we could just start with some general sugar beet info, maybe Andrew, I'll pick on you first. Tell us some things that, that we might not otherwise know the general public across The US about, about sugar beets.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Just a couple quick quick hitters on sugar beets here. One thing, if you if you're buying sugar from a grocery store, right, unless that package of sugar specifically says cane sugar, that that sugar product was refined from a sugar beet. So that's one thing that right up front, just to let people know that unless you see cane sugar written somewhere on that package, it is a sugar beet product that you are buying.
Speaker 2:That will be news I think for most of our audience because it certainly was news to me when we talked about that before.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and one of my big things with beets that I found absolutely amazing is just the size of the sugar beet seed. It's actually very small. It's about the size of a mustard seed when you break it down and what goes in the planter. So you think of the lead tip of a pencil. That's really close, and that's how small those seeds are going in the ground.
Speaker 4:A lot of people don't realize that you have a one box, and it plants hundreds of acres, right? So kind of neat, not something you expect for what that little seed actually grows into the size of what a beet can be. So kind of kind of a neat fact.
Speaker 2:And you don't plant those seeds as deep as maybe most people would think that you plant like a corn or soybean seed. Is that correct?
Speaker 4:Right. So we plant sugar beets about half an inch deep, which is why when those little seeds are seedlings emerge, wind is such an issue for sugar beet growers.
Speaker 2:Oh, gotcha. Okay. So, so, yeah, let's get into, and then we can throw some other fun facts because I'm I'm sure there's quite a bit folks, that might be listening and don't know about the about the crop itself, but maybe we'll get to some of those things as we go through kind of the life cycle. So let's let's talk about planting. So when do you typically plant?
Speaker 2:What kind of goes into it, types of equipment you use, that type of thing? And that's for either of you or both of you.
Speaker 3:Well, I'll start on this one. Sugar beets are planted early, typically before other row crops. They're very resilient to cold temperatures. It takes a really hard freeze to damage a young sugar beet plant. Planting early also means you can maximize your growing season because sugar beets, unlike other crops that mature and die off at the end of the year, sugar beets are still growing all year round, so when everything else is being harvested in the fall months, sugar beets are still growing, they're still adding tons, they're still adding sugar, so that adds another benefit of planting early to lengthen out that growing season.
Speaker 2:Gotcha, and I'm interested in getting the harvest, but let's let's take it as it goes because there's a ton of harvest questions that I have. So, so, Sarah, what about, you mentioned wind. What are what are some of the other things, maybe conditions that you're worried about during, planting season? Or right after they get planted?
Speaker 4:Sure. So sugar beets, we can always refer to as a princess crop. They don't like to get wet feet, kind of like a dry bean too. But beets do not do well typically with disease. Disease pressure has been one of the big things industry wide that causes a lot of problems.
Speaker 4:So wind early, wet weather throughout the season with disease, and when you get to the end of the year, everything's pretty much made. It's just kind of during the growing season that where that full coverage crop insurance policy really comes into play.
Speaker 2:Gotcha. Okay. So anything interesting about growing equipment? Is typical equipment plant a tractor pulling behind or because I know harvest is is significantly different.
Speaker 3:Planting time, really no different than planting corn, for example. You can use your same planter, same equipment throughout the season, same sprayer, all those different types of things. At the harvest side of things, which I'm sure we'll talk about here after a little while, you do have special equipment for that.
Speaker 4:Right, and one thing too with beets is there are multiple passes for fungicide protection, disease protection. Corn, soybeans, you can get by with one or two in a year. Beets will typically have, I would say, six to eight applications. Andrew, you think that's fair?
Speaker 3:Yeah. I think that's fair depending on the year and the weather conditions and other market conditions, certainly. Four to four to six, four to eight, somewhere in that range is very common.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what I was gonna get to that next, like, growing season, right? So you have that many passes, and, you know, what kind of weather conditions really kind of concern you throughout the growing season, throughout the summer?
Speaker 4:Typical I'd I'd go back to that, too much moisture. You can raise beets in a drought. In the areas that that raise beets, it is it is too much moisture, that really can plague a beet crop.
Speaker 2:Agree, Andrew?
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely agree. The wet weather, excess moisture, just like other things, right? It's a way for disease to naturally set in, right? And Sarah talked about disease and fungicide pracis. Definitely the biggest culprit of that is something called cercospora.
Speaker 3:Cercospora is a disease that affects the leaves of your sugar beets. Without any healthy leaves, your sugar beets don't produce as much sugar. You're limited in the amount of sugar that the beet itself will produce. So you want to protect those leaves, requires all the additional fungicide passes that Sarah just mentioned a little while ago.
Speaker 2:Gotcha. So yeah, I'm going be backing up a little bit, but as far as you know, or another area I should say that that is very fascinating is contracting at the beginning of the year. Like so can you can you guys take me through like contracting to a processing plant? What how that works when it's locked in things that you're considering when you actually sign that agreement?
Speaker 3:Yeah, first off, not everyone can just pick up and decide that I'm going to start planting sugar beets next year. You need to be part of a co op, a processing plant, to be able to plant sugar beets. So that starts with either owning or renting shares of that company that you wanna be a part of. Once that's happening, the co op will give you a planting tolerance based off of the amount of shares that you either own or you have access to. And that is the numbers that are going on your contracted acres, which we are gonna utilize on your acreage reports for crop insurance.
Speaker 4:Right. I think it's important to note that the beet industry is really small. There are a limited number of co ops out there, and not all co ops function the same. Some co ops allow investors to buy shares. Other coops do not.
Speaker 4:So that can really fluctuate the value of a share depending on what the sugar market is doing. But like Andrew said, there are planting tolerances. And typically, like one share equals one acre and then the tolerance backs up or moves forward from there.
Speaker 2:Gotcha. So so then at the, and this is just truly out of the blue and and maybe it doesn't apply, but the as far as does that enter into the planning decisions? I I don't know how many varieties there might be that that you would choose to plant, but but is all that kinda locked in in the contract, or are you making those decisions based on what you're expected to perform as part of the contract?
Speaker 4:Yeah. Our contract is set, I believe, in March for our co op. And those acres, you have to know by then before planting. The co op needs to do their planting. There are water restrictions through processing plants.
Speaker 4:So they need Most processors want to max out tons when they go through. So back that up, how do we get that right? We get acres planted, expected tons, expected sugar percentage gives us our tons to the plant. But the the expectation is, by March, I believe, or or April, somewhere in that early springtime for us.
Speaker 2:Gotcha. And would that vary significantly? Like you said, it's it's kind of a a small world, but I know a significant amount of geography is involved in growing sugar bees, like I said, from, like, Idaho to to Michigan. And I'm not sure if how far into Michigan or how much Michigan actually grows. But with those decisions vary significantly, or is it given that it's a small world, is it is it kinda similar across the board as far as you're aware?
Speaker 3:I think, you know, every region, every processor maybe has different nuances and different strategies involved. Sarah mentioned some might be looking for high tonnage, others may be looking for higher quality, you know, less tonnage, but higher quality sugar. So there's certainly some probably some variances from region to region.
Speaker 2:Gotcha. Just fascinating. It's it's it's fascinating to me the ins and outs. And now let's get to the part that I I'm really interested in because if if you go if you go look at, and I've seen this happen when I've, when I've traveled myself, just not been terribly aware of of, like, the harvest harvesting procedures and the types of equipment used and how many passes you need to make that kind of thing. So I'm I'm anxious to to get in that discussion.
Speaker 2:So maybe, Sarah, if you kick kick us off on this one, you know, tell us a little bit about how how sugar beets are harvested.
Speaker 4:Sure. So there are a lot of passes, requires a lot of equipment, requires a lot of trucks. When you think like a normal APH might be 30 tons, that's 30 tons of product coming off of an acre. So that going on to trucks. So the first pass is going to be with your topper or defoliator.
Speaker 4:So it's a piece of equipment behind the tractor that has flaps that take the leaves off. And then a scalper comes behind that, shaves that top off, that growing point on the beat. And then after that, you've got a lifter that comes and pops those beets out of the ground into the lifter, goes through. Hopefully, a lot of that dirt comes off so we don't get docked for that when we get to the processor and then out the top of the auger and into the truck. So Andrew, what else?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I just want to emphasize, you mentioned just a lot of trucks, right? Sugar beet harvest, once it is up and running, which the main campaign for sugar beets typically starts October 1, it's a very slow harvest. And for that reason, it's common for sugar beet producers to operate 20 fourseven for the timeline that they're allowed to go. Sugar beet harvest can be very picky, right? Because of how beets need to be stored outside, they have to harvested at ideal weather conditions, not too hot, not too cold.
Speaker 3:So you get a lot of shutdowns during harvest. It's a naturally long harvest to begin with, so that is part of the reason, like I said, where you are operating 20 fourseven, you know, a lot of times during that harvest season. And in situations, you know, you're harvesting maybe 10 acres per hour, sometimes a lot less than that depending on your farm logistics and your proximity to your piling station and all those other types of factors.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That that that's the part that's fascinating. The number of pass that come through, the exactness with which, everything set like Sarah was talking about where you cut the tops off and then it and then you come through, I think, is is it discs that that raise the the beets up so that they can be grabbed and and pulled out and the dirt can be removed? Because when you when you see the, looks like, you know, it goes through carousel and then Yeah. You know, that's to get the dirt off, right, to get it into the truck.
Speaker 2:And, it's just fascinating. So you mentioned the piling center. So how how far are those typically from the from the farm? I mean, there are there a number of these? Are they do you have to get them all the way to the processing plant?
Speaker 2:How how does that part work?
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's certainly a number of them. I mean, it can vary in distance depending on where your farm is. Right? Right. But it's common.
Speaker 3:You could have a eight, ten, 15 mile one way trip to your piling station to deliver your sugar beets.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's interesting because of all the transition that's involved in the crop there. You mentioned, sir, you mentioned 30 tons an acre. So using that kind of, if that's your APH and that's what you raise, know, I think a interesting fact would be, could you back at a napkin, say how much the table sugar that that would end up creating? A 30 tons on, 30 tons on your APH translates into about about how many bags of sugar would you say?
Speaker 4:Oh, that's a great question. I've never actually run it back like that. So it it just depends on your sugar percentage. Right? So Yeah.
Speaker 4:A a normal sugar percentage, Andrew's area is higher than my area in a normal year. So if you just take, let's just say, a 15 and a half or 16% sugar, just take that 30 tons, right? 30 times 2,000 times that percent is going to give you the pounds of sugar that actually come off that acre, that one acre. Yeah. So it's it's incredible, actually.
Speaker 2:And and that's where I was getting at. Was like, okay. So 30 tons of crop comes off an acre. And how much how much would that turn into easy math? Like you just said, I mean, you have to back into the actual number depending on the percentage.
Speaker 2:But, it it's it's mind blowing how much sugar that one acre can potentially produce. And then, you know, so table sugar is easy to think of. You buy them in bags at the grocery store and all that good stuff. But so where where do these I mean, you know, some of the big providers. So the processing plant has contracts with different restaurants in different areas.
Speaker 2:Can you talk a little bit about, about some of that?
Speaker 4:You'll have contracts with, like, Subway or Hershey's or all those end users, that, you know, The United States consumer uses. That's where sugar's contracted through. And like Andrew mentioned earlier, there's two forms of sugar. There's sugar from beets and then there's cane sugar. So it's truly one or the other, but that's typically your processors have contracts with their customers and then we deliver on those.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And then as from from the field to the, can you talk a little bit about piles? That that's one of the things that, that that everybody, particularly people who are driving through that area of the country see like, what is, you know, what is that on the on the side of the road, you know, next to the building? You see giant tarps over top of everything. Can you talk about how, you know, it gets the pile, how long they need to be there before they can sit there through winter.
Speaker 2:Right? And then when they're actually pulled out of there?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so once the farmer delivers their beets to that piling station, the beets will sit there outdoors, right? Most often outdoors, until the factory needs them. The factory will come and pick them up and then deliver them to the factory where they are then processed into sugar. It can take up until the following May, June, July at sometimes, depending on how big the crop is, how fast they can process it, how long those those piles sit out in the open.
Speaker 2:Gotcha. That that's it just really unique and and pretty cool. So anything else on that, Sarah? I wanna get into the the crop insurance side now that that we've kinda talked through the entire process.
Speaker 4:Yeah. No. I think Andrew nailed it. You know, you you get those people that do drive by, and it's like, what is this big quarter quarter mile long runway and what is on it? Right?
Speaker 4:And and it's it's fun when you get to when we cool down, right? We want those beets to cool down so they store over the winter and you see the steam rolling off the piles, right? Because all that product is just cooling off. And Andrew nailed it. That's the timeline.
Speaker 4:A shorter shorter crop is going to take less time to process through. A longer crop, you're going to get out into May or June but we want those beets, you know, off there. The warmer it gets, the more those beets spoil and the more waste we have, right, which takes away from profitability. So
Speaker 2:So, Sarah, talk to me a little bit about the processing process itself. Right? So once you get it into the the piles that you see on the side of the road, what happens from there?
Speaker 4:Right. So so those piles will eventually get picked up by trucks again. Right? So, essentially, these beats are touched multiple times, and they'll go from the piler to the processor. And from the processor, they go into the plant.
Speaker 4:And if I remember right from a a tour we did a couple years ago, the beets go in, kinda get chopped up or mulched up, if you will, and then they go through a bunch of a bunch of there's like a a cleaning station kind of where water goes in them, right, and they go through, takes more of the dirt off, and then it's it's heated. But Andrew, maybe you've got a little bit more in-depth with that. I know you've done multiple tours.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So once the beets are in piles, the processor picks them up and then delivers them to sugar beet factory. Once they are there, they're washed and filtered to remove any additional dirt and debris off of them, then they are sliced into little thin little strips. These strips enter into a big tall diffusing station where they're heated with hot water and then extracting out raw sugar juice out of that. Once that juice is extracted, it gets purified and then carbonized and then evaporated until crystal sugars start to form.
Speaker 3:The sugars are filtered and screened for size, and then they're placed into bags where they can then be shipped to their final destination. This whole process of raw sugar beet into refined sugar can take less than twenty four hours depending on the factory and the setup and all those other types of factors. So now that's a very simple explanation of the sugar process, and there's a lot more that goes into it, but that is the general process involved.
Speaker 2:Is twenty four hours typical would you say, or is it kind of on the about the shortest end it could go, as quick as it could go?
Speaker 3:That's probably on the shorter end but in general, it's a pretty fast timeline from when that truck dumps and delivers that bead into that factory from when it is into a sugar silo and it's just ready to be packaged at that point.
Speaker 2:Ready to go. Interesting. Very interesting. Talk just talk a little bit if you guys both and you guys can both. Maybe we'll start with Andrew on this one.
Speaker 2:So there there's not a revenue product, right? So it's a pH. So talk talk to me a little bit about, you know, how a grower and an agent would have a conversation about what their crop insurance looks like for the year.
Speaker 3:Well, just, first off, you know, sugar beets are a very expensive crop to grow. They're very high risk, high reward. It's common to see expenses of $1,500 an acre or higher just to grow sugar beets. So there's a lot of money on the line, which is why crop insurance is such a valuable piece of that puzzle related to sugar beets. Just in the last couple years, we had an enterprise unit expansion for sugar beets, which did help control some of your insurance premiums with the caveat being of what the added risks that come with enterprise units also pertain.
Speaker 3:Right? But to your point, Dave, what's really missing, what's really lacking with crop insurance and sugar beets is the ability to have a revenue policy. And 2025 is a great example of that. Processors in 2025 have their payments released and they are 40 to 50% lower than what they were in 2024. Some processors even higher than that.
Speaker 3:So having a revenue component to crop insurance would greatly benefit sugar beet farmers and then provide them with the same peace of mind that revenue protection gives other crops.
Speaker 4:Yeah, Andrew nailed it. I mean, number one, hands down revenue protection like we have on corn, beans, dry beans, like other crops. It'd be really great to have a top end coverage. There is ECO on beets, which is helpful on a county plan level. Having like our product, like an ECO plus would be advantageous, but Andrew nailed it.
Speaker 4:We're 2025 is actually quite a devastating year for a lot of beet growers. Majority of us came in with this year with a fairly breakeven number to making some profit, and you will have catastrophic losses from revenue just with the supply and demand that we have and how those WASDE reports have come out. It would not surprise me to see growers losing $1,200 an acre, Dave, and that's real numbers. This is a real rural impact for our growers and a revenue product, no doubt, would be expensive. As Andrew mentioned, beets are expensive to grow, but it would certainly help and just having the option, right?
Speaker 4:Let a producer choose where they want to put their risk is huge, but when we're not covered, that's hard. Now we've got to make that up, and that will take years for some growers to recover from this year with the price drop.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I I can imagine $1,200, an acre just right there with no revenue, protection to support that would be devastating.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 2:So that that maybe goes into I've got some other questions about the crop insurance, but while we're on that, so is the industry, industry associations, you know, one, how is how is that organized? Is it just by processing plan or is there some overarching association? And after you talk about that, like, are there some folks asking, you know, any folk any people in crop insurance for maybe to develop a revenue policy or or where do those items sit right now?
Speaker 4:Sure. So, you have the American Sugar Grower Association, right? Which is kind of your your nationwide.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 4:And then your individual processors no doubt have people in connection with your legislator and those people in power. And I would say after this year you're going to be hearing a lot more ask from people for a revenue product. So what do you think, Andrew?
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely. I think given the circumstances that you laid out and definitely the pain that a lot of producers are feeling, there's going to be an enhanced push definitely among lobbyists to to make a push for some enhancements on sugar beets.
Speaker 2:So that that begs another question of okay. So the OB three or know, one big beautiful bill act, on July 4, there were some obviously, we've talked a lot in the industry is is well aware of a lot of the changes. What what kind of impacts from OBBB kind of impact of sugar beet growers, or is there that many? I mean, ECO is one certainly, but are there others?
Speaker 3:Well, OB three, it will help with sugar beet producers in 2026. Just like other crops, sugar beets will benefit from the increased subsidies that insureds will receive on their underlying multi peril crop insurance policies. And then as you mentioned, Dave, area plans such as SCO and ECO, those also can be part of sugar beets. You can add those to your sugar beet policies. So the increased subsidies on those plans are things that benefits producers as well.
Speaker 3:Shall they elect to take them in 2026?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, depending on and are you seeing a lot of conversation with, with agents and growers about area plans like ECO and SEO for the upcoming years or maybe we're just starting those conversations?
Speaker 3:Yeah, just really starting those conversations, but definitely it is going to be a valid risk management strategy in 2026 and definitely warranted given the additional subsidies that the government is putting onto those policies for 2026.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Gotcha. Sarah, anything to add on to that one?
Speaker 4:I think Andrew pretty much nailed it. It's just that top end coverage for guys to protect those shallow losses.
Speaker 2:So Yeah. And especially on a county basis, which when, you know, when the prices go down the way you're saying without a revenue product, you know, they're still growing their APH. In some cases, you know, these these wouldn't necessarily meet that need that you're describing that that people have faced in 2025. So so I could see certainly understand how that conversation will continue and maybe even ramp up over the next year. Anything else is related to the related to the industry or crop insurance that that you think the folks either viewing or listening might wanna learn a little bit more about?
Speaker 3:Well, with sugar beets, and kind of going back to harvest a little bit, harvest is kind of broken up into two different phases. You have your early harvest or pre pile harvest, and then you have your main harvest, the stockpile harvest. There are some crop insurance considerations that you can work with related to acres that you are harvesting early, prior to October 1. That is an option you can put onto your policy that does improve your reported yields given the amount of acres that you are harvesting early.
Speaker 4:We see that early harvest factor kind of ebbs and flows when which years they take it, which years producers don't. So one thing too about about beets is that, you know, we talked earlier about it's a it's a co op based crop. And so you can have a great a great yield. And if the co op doesn't have a great year, that can absolutely impact your payment, right? So it's not like corner beans where you you bring it in and you can request from your green merchandiser to get a check-in the next day or two, right?
Speaker 4:And you get paid. There's a set structure to how we get paid and there are times where if things aren't lining up on the on the co op financials, we may we may have a whole payment that gets held back and a lot of times that last payment or two is your profit. So something something very different than raising corn or bean or weeds or wheat.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Thanks for bringing that up because you're right. That's that's significantly different.
Speaker 2:Okay. So now the fun part. We talked about how where we're recording this you know, just prior to the holidays in 2025. Yeah. Obviously, sugar makes its way into multiple foods, and we talked about some of those.
Speaker 2:But let's talk about some of the, the best ones, desserts. So what what are some of your your favorite desserts that that you guys are are getting ready to enjoy here come the holidays?
Speaker 4:I'm a big fan of pumpkin, so I like pumpkin pie or pumpkin bars, Dave. That would be that would be my go to.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Nice. Andrew, pumpkin fan?
Speaker 3:I am not a pumpkin fan. If I were to choose a pie, it would definitely be apple. That would be my choice for pies. Christmas time, definitely Christmas cookies. There's many different types and different flavors.
Speaker 3:Those are always a popular hit with me. And then going back to my Norwegian heritage, my Krumkaka is always one of my favorite holiday desserts.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, you can't leave it there. Tell us what that is.
Speaker 3:I would I would compare it to a very thinly very thin sliced pancake, basically, sugary batter that's rolled up and crunchy.
Speaker 2:Oh, gotcha. Okay. And what's it called again? Krumkaka. Krumkaka.
Speaker 2:Gotcha. Okay. Well, to round out the pie discussion, I'm Cherry. Cherry is my favorite. Although I love pumpkin and I love, I also love apple.
Speaker 2:So I guess if it's a pie that's in front of me, it's it's good with me.
Speaker 4:It's down.
Speaker 2:It's down. That's right. I'm not gonna turn that down by any means. Alright. Well, I think we've, we've kinda taken it from, field to fork, so to speak, soup to nuts all the way from the beginning to the end of the of the process.
Speaker 2:So, unless you guys have anything more to add as far as interesting facts we might wanna hear about sugar beets.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Just a couple Oh, here. Once once sugar is refined, it is over 99.9% pure, which makes white sugar one of the highest quality refined products that you will see at a grocery store. Now it's not a whole food, right? So you can't compare it to fruits or vegetables or anything like that, but anything that's refined or processed, sugar is among the top as far as quality and purity.
Speaker 3:So that's one little quick hitter for you. Another one, brown sugar. Brown sugar is simply just white sugar that has molasses mixed in with it, which is why it kind of has that sticky feel, of that tackiness to it. That's all it is. It's just white sugar mixed in with what molasses is.
Speaker 2:And where does that molasses come from?
Speaker 3:Molasses is one of the byproducts of the sugar beet processing system, the process. So some of the byproducts of processing sugar, you get beet pulp, which you can utilize in the livestock industry as feed, and then the second major byproduct of the processing is molasses, which is another product that you can use in the livestock industry and also in the food industry as well.
Speaker 2:Gotcha. Very interesting. Nothing going to waste, which is One
Speaker 3:last little Yeah. Quick little nugget for you. If you break sugar down to a a molecular level or or chemistry level, right, Sugar is sugar, whether it's coming from beets, whether it's coming from cane, it's the exact same molecular compound. So it's the identical structure once you break it down, no matter what that sugar source is, whether it's beets, whether it's cane.
Speaker 2:So in other words, if there was a blind taste test and you had cane sugar here and you had beet sugar here, it would be nearly impossible for someone to tell.
Speaker 3:That's right. Unless you're going off of maybe texture or something like that. But as far as the other things, yeah, same.
Speaker 2:What it's made up of, it's exactly the same. That that's interesting. And so does that oh, go ahead, Sarah.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Which which begs though, let's let's go to like the the the mom side of it, right, in grocery shopping. When you're in the store, no matter what brand is on the bag, it's the exact same sugar, guys. It's Yeah. It's the same thing.
Speaker 4:It's a it's a different label slapped on it. Don't feel bad for buying a dollar 29 bag of sugar.
Speaker 2:No. Interesting. Great. Great advice for our listeners. And and then that's a perfect another perfect segue into, you know, if folks, are intrigued by this conversation, want to learn a little bit more, you know, where where should they go?
Speaker 2:I mean, obviously, and and farmers would would talk to each other and talk to others in the industry. But are there any places you recommend people go to to have a further conversation?
Speaker 4:It's a great question, Dave. Talk to a local grower, right? Go right to the source and visit. Andrew and I, both of our co ops are different, but they allow tours of the facility. So if you want to know more, I think you just go online on the web and you'll find people that are happy to share a sugar story with you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a great idea, Sarah.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Awesome. So perfect. So I I think that wraps it up pretty good. I think we got a taste if you wanna learn more. There's certainly opportunities to do that.
Speaker 2:The information you guys have been able to provide has been has been excellent. I really appreciate you guys, taking the time and and effort to come on and and and talk about, what you do at FMH and talk about what you do, as farmers. So, really appreciate, each of you being here. And, you know, with that, let me let me just, close by saying, if if everyone who's listening and watching enjoyed this episode, you know, please, you know, you can you can like and subscribe to each of those platforms. YouTube, obviously, there's video and and, so we're excited to be able to come at you that way.
Speaker 2:And, just wanna thank everybody for listening. Thank you guys again for for coming on, and, stay tuned for the next, FMH Insurecast. Thanks, everybody.
Speaker 4:Thanks. Thanks, Dave.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 2:Thanks, you guys.
Speaker 1:You've been listening to FMH Insurecast. We appreciate you joining us today and would like to hear from you. If you have questions about today's topic or an idea to share for an upcoming podcast, you can contact us at FMHpodcast@FMH.com. Thanks for listening. This podcast is intended for information purposes only.
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