Cutting Piling Yard Loss

An innovative European machine has become a valuable asset at Michigan Sugar Company’s sugarbeet piling station near Dover, Ontario.

The euro-Maus, built by the German firm Ropa, is a self-propelled unit that initially was developed for cleaning and loading of beets, from “clamps” at the edge of European fields, onto waiting trucks. The Maus can clean and load up to 435 tons of beets per hour, according to Ropa. Maus units used in Europe have a header (much like a combine) that picks up and cleans the beets; a grab roll screen that cleans out soil and debris; and a conveyor that can move in almost any direction to elevate beets up and into trucks.

A prototype header of a different sort was developed in 2005 by John Noorloos, a southwestern Ontario beet grower and partner in Ropa North America. This header — designed to accommodate the large volume of long-term beet piles — was tested at the Dover yard in 2005 and 2006 with very favorable results. It allowed the removal of beets from the entire pile exterior (i.e., pile shoulders) rather than from just the ends of each pile, as is the standard industry practice.

During 15 days in January of 2007, the modified Maus was used to clean and load all transfer beets at the Dover site. Across that period, just over 32,000 tons of beets were loaded, with more than 2,000 tons of excess soil screened out by the Maus. Freight savings alone from the screening amounted to nearly $19,800. Overall beet quality was improved by the pile shoulder removal approach, with factory efficiency being the eventual beneficiary.

Michigan Sugar’s satisfaction with the system resulted in the company entering into a three-year lease with Ropa North America on a new Maus. Since then, the entire 2007 and 2008 crops at Dover have been loaded out with the Maus machine.

Several benefits were realized during the 2007/08 campaign:

• The Maus removed 8,664 tons of tare (soil and plant material), which represented 4.9% of the entire stored beet piles.

• A freight savings of more than $97,500 was achieved by not transporting that tare to the factory; plus, there was a loading savings of $8,340.

• The Maus system reduced the amount sugarbeet root damage (as compared to that inflicted by buckets of wheel loaders).

• Since the Maus worked around the outside of the piles in a circular pattern, continuously removing beets from pile shoulders, root deterioration was significantly reduced.

There were some added input costs associated with the Maus, including: an auxiliary payloader to remove tare and rake pile sides; labor to operate the Maus and loader; fuel for the Maus and loader; and tare disposal. However, after all the expenses were calculated, the net benefit from using the Ropa recovery system during the 2007/08 campaign amounted to more than $16,000.

Researchers from the University of Guelph’s Ridgetown College campus conducted several studies during the 2007/08 campaign to compare beet quality of the Maus continuous pile-shoulder-removal system with that of beets in a standard beet pile (left intact; no shoulder removal).

The Ridgetown group found that the Maus pile retained 38.8 more pounds of sugar per ton (based on 3.7% better purity and a 1.0% higher sugar content) compared to the intact pile. Enhanced pile ventilation doubtlessly was a major reason for this improved quality. Extrapolated across the 150,000 tons of beets stored and recovered at Dover in 2007/08, that translates into 3.4 million pounds more of sugar that potentially could be processed.

The Maus system was compared with the traditional pile recovery system (use of wheel loaders) again during the 2008/09 storage and processing campaign. However, beet quality differences between the Maus pile and the “conventional intact pile’ were very slight and did not equate to differences in recoverable sugar per ton or per acre, or in level of grower payments. Good storage conditions this year likely contributed to the similarity in root quality.

Michigan Sugar Croswell factory staff did observe significantly less tare soil in the soil settling ponds — which was attributable to the cleaning activity of the Maus recovery system. Less damage to the Dover beet pile yard also was noted again this year.

One other observation: Since Michigan Sugar’s Ontario growers ship their beets a long distance (and across the Canadian-U.S. border) to Croswell, their shipping costs are the highest of any group in the cooperative. (MSC’s grower-shareholders are responsible for 50% of the direct freight costs.) Reducing beet storage losses at the Dover facility has been a high priority in the effort to maintain a viable beet sector in southern Ontario. The Maus certainly is contributing to that effort and brightening the outlook for the beet industry — both in Ontario and in other Michigan Sugar Company districts where it has application.

Keith Kalso is Michigan Sugar Company agricultural manager for the Croswell factory district, which includes Ontario.

GROWERS ALSO UTILIZING MAUS UNITS

While a few other sugarbeet processors have expressed interest in the Ropa Maus recovery system, Michigan Sugar Company is, to date, the only one actually utilizing the Maus in any of its piling yard operations. Ropa North America is hopeful, however, that Maus units will be adopted elsewhere in the North American sugarbeet processing sector.

A few sugarbeet growers are currently using a Maus on their farms, reports Ropa North America’s John Noorloos. A group in southwestern Ontario’s Lambton County is collectively using one Maus for cleaning and loading beets directly to the Michigan Sugar’s Croswell factory, he notes.

Some Dover area growers have begun using a Maus for early harvest, also shipping directly to the Croswell factory and thus saving the cost of transporting their beets to the piling yard. “It also saves Michigan Sugar from starting up the piling yard until they get to full harvest,” Noorloos points out.

Finally, two beet grower operations in eastern Michigan have purchased Maus units. One family, which owns two Ropa Tiger self-propelled harvesters, uses the Maus to take the beets from the Tigers and ship directly to the factory. They also then remove the Maus head in order to load out transfer beets from large piles. Another family uses their Maus to load beets for neighboring growers in addition to their own.

“The factories are seeing real benefit in having clean beets and not transporting the dirt,” Noorloos observes. — Don Lilleboe