Diggin' Beets

Raising sugar beets runs deep in our family. My great grandparents came over from the Russia/Germany area in the late 1800's and migrated around the US working in the beet fields. In 1942 Grandpa Adam bought a farm south of Worland and started growing his own sugar beets. Four generations later, the legacy continues.

Growing sugar beets in the Big Horn Basin has been around since 1905. But at the turn of the millennium  the Worland factory was about to call it quits. So in 2002 the farmers banded together, along with local investors, to buy the factory and form Wyoming Sugar Company. Today, WSC is a 100% grower owned cooperative. 

In the early days, digging beets was a chore. Back then, the measure of a man was how many tons of beets you could shovel.

Over the years tractors replaced shovels. A three row digger was the norm in the 60’s and 70's.

In the 80's, six row pullers were the most common and Lungren's would run two in a field.

It was always a family affair: Dad and Uncle Vance.

During the 90's, us cousins would spend every Saturday we could in the beet field. Even the boys from Rawlins would come up.

Clint and I logged plenty of hours picking up loose beets and throwing them in the trucks.

Today the family digs on. 

And they're still running two old six rows.

Keep on farmin' in a free world partner.

I'm forever thankful for the farmers who have persevered through thick and thin to help sweeten our lives. The sugar is great, but the flavor they bring to the world is irreplaceable. Little draws a man's heart closer to his Creator than dirt. It's where we came from. If we forget that, we loose touch with reality Himself. Life is a beet field, all we have to do is dig it.