In some areas combine harvesters are replaced in the fields by beet harvesters as the month progresses and the huge lorries carrying sugar beet to the factories appear on the roads. The number of sugar beet factories has decreased and there are now fewer regional centres to which beet can be sent. Growers are paid an allowance for delivery, which is usually carried out by a local haulage contractor. Sugar beet is grown on a quota system and the grower is paid on an allocated tonnage of beet to be delivered at a sugar content of 16 per cent. Test digs carried out in August suggest that this will be a good year with a high sugar content and weight delivered will be credited and adjustments made to fulfill the contract.
Any excess beet is paid for at a lower amount than contract price.
It is important to deliver to the factory any beet lifted this month as, like most root vegetables they will dry out and lose weight rapidly if left out in a warm, humid atmosphere. Later on in the season, the cooler weather enables the beet to be harvested and stored against future delivery. Farmers thoughout the country are worried about the cost of fuel oil which has risen by eighty per cent - a charge which affects all sections of the industry. Today, a five hundred acre arable farm which in 1945 had eighteen to twenty horses with four men to look after them, plus a further twenty-two general agricultural workers, is now worked by two men and many thousands of pounds invested in equipment which is all affected by the rise in fuel costs. There are so many things going on in the countryside this month depending on regions.