Potatoes
Nebraska’s water resources, sandy soils, and favorable climate promote great potato yields. Nebraska’s central location in the United States also is a marketing advantage. Potato planting in eastern Nebraska begins in early April for a summer harvest, while central and western areas plant in early May for a fall crop. Unlike most other crops, potatoes are stored and marketed directly by the producers, creating year-round jobs.
Nebraska has ranked high as 10th in the nation for potato production at 8.4 million hundredweight.
About one-third of the states’ potatoes are processed into potato chips. The rest of Nebraska’s potatoes are table potatoes for grocery stores and seed potatoes
“Nebraska Agriculture Facts.” Nebraska Agriculture, Nebraska Department of Agriculture, https://nda.nebraska.gov/publications/ne_ag_facts_brochure.pdf.
“Potatoes: Harvesting and Storing (Potatocare).” Potatoes: Harvesting and Storing (Potatocare) | Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County, https://lancaster.unl.edu/hort/articles/2002/potatocare.shtml.
Sugar Beets
The first modern sugarbeets originated as selections made in the middle of the 18th century from fodderbeets grown in then German Silesia, but food and medicinal uses are much older.
In 1747 a German chemist, Andreas Marggraf, demonstrated that the crystals formed after a crude extraction from pulverized beet roots were identical in all properties with sugarcane crystals, and attempts to derive sugar from beets originate from his work. His student, Karl Achard, developed processing methods for sugar extraction from the beet, and made the first selections of higher sugar type beets. The blockade of shipments of cane sugar to Europe by the British during the Napoleonic wars stimulated a more intensive search for sweeter beets, a plant breeding program and the construction of many crude factories in France and elsewhere to produce sugar from the sugarbeet. After Waterloo and the lifting of the British blockade, the sugarbeet industry in France declined but the modern sugarbeet had been created and the ability to extract sugar from the beet had been demonstrated. The first successful commercial factory in the USA was constructed by E. H. Dyer at Alvarado, California in 1879. Soon after sugarbeet culture and factories expanded in many states. By 1917 there were 91 factories operating in 18 states. By 2005 there were 23 highly efficient operating sugarbeet factories in 10 states processing 30 million tons of sugarbeets grown on approximately 1.4 million acres. Over 4.5 million tons of sugar are produced each year in the U.S. from sugarbeets and beet sugar represents 54 percent of domestic sugar production in the U.S.
“Sugarbeet History.” American Sugar Beets Association, https://americansugarbeet.org/who-we-are/sugarbeet-history/.
“Sugarbeet Harvest.” Sugarbeet Harvest | Nebraska Extension, https://extension.unl.edu/statewide/panhandle/sugarbeet-harvest/.