Sugar Beet Harvest Temp Employment (Fargo, Grand Forks: find a job, camp, live)

[Jamesww]

I am looking to find a job doing the sugar beet harvest. I hear that you can work 12 hours a day 7 days a week and make between 2-4k during the season.

Is this correct? And if so how difficult is it to find a job? I just want to make some extra money while I travel through the Midwestern cities.

Also please let me know of any other opportunities that exist. I am trying to earn gas money for my cross country road trip.

[dutchinnd]

American Crystal Sugar would probably be the place to start:
https://www.crystalsugar.com/crystal-careers/

There may also be independent haulers who contract temp help; I would check the Fargo Forum's online job site for those postings, usually under the heading of transportation:
JobsHQ | Your headquarters for hundreds of local jobs - including newspaper listings from four states - MN, ND, SD, WI

[Jamesww]

Thanks! Anybody else have any ideas for me?

[Woodrow LI]

There is only one company I am aware of. Harvesting will begin in 24 days.

Check HERE

[Tundra dweller]

I worked for a temp agency on a beet piler years ago when I lived in Grand Forks.

Try to find a piler close to where you will be sleeping. You will be tired and need all the rest you can when you are not working. Overnight shifts are going to be very cold, I'd have insulated coveralls with a couple layers underneath that you can take off if you find you are too warm. The work is easy. You basically just line trucks up and take samples, then you hang the sample bags on the back of the truck before they leave again. It might be easier nowadays, since most of the trucks are conveyor belt driven, as opposed to dump truck style. Less spillage to deal with.

I never worked them again, as I had permanent employment after that. Personally I would have rather worked for a farmer driving a truck. The trucks have heaters and radios and they got long breaks sitting in line at the pilers. They could work extra hours, and many stayed on after beets to haul potatoes.

That was just my limited experience.

[Kamsack]

Here is an article in the Grand Forks Herald just a couple days ago... having issues finding enough temp workers

Farmers, American Crystal Sugar see shortage of harvest workers | Grand Forks Herald

One exerpt...

Hall and Shearer spend September and October working for the American Crystal Sugar in East Grand Forks during the sugar beet harvest. They’re two of many out-of-state workers who come to the Red River Valley during the sugar beet harvest for the American Crystal and its growers.

But the employers say finding harvest help like Hall and Shearer has become a bigger challenge with growing competition for workers around the region.

“(The valley) needs a lot of trucks and there is a shortage,” he said. “We’ve been raising the pay per hour,” adding that it has gotten up to $25 an hour in some parts of the region while it was in the mid-teens in past years.

With the scarcity of local workers, Gowan said American Crystal has brought in a growing number of workers who camp while working in the East Grand Forks sugar factory during the harvest season.