Energy Beets?

            Ready to try sugar beets on your farm? Actually these are varieties which are being developed for ethanol production rather than sugar. Ethanol from beets has several advantages over corn based ethanol. Beets can produce about double the ethanol per acre than corn and processing ethanol from beets uses about half of the water needed to process corn based ethanol.

            We have tended to think of beets as an irrigated crop anywhere other than the Red River Valley but current research being done across North Dakota indicates that dryland beets can do very well in most areas of the state. Beets are actually quite drought tolerant because of their deep taproot and can actually help reduce salinity problems by drawing down the water table.

            While sugarbeets can be used as energy beets, ethanol producers are not as concerned with sugar purity and quality as sugar producers so it is easier for breeders to advance genetics for maximum production when developing energy beet varieties.

            Promoters of energy beets and NDSU researchers are currently looking to central and eastern ND as potential dryland energy beet production but if the current wet cycle continues “energy beets” could become a potential crop for western producers in the future.