Sugarbeet Feature Stories

    Most — but not all — sugarbeet processors conduct an early harvest (prepile) campaign to get their factories up and rolling prior to the initiation of the main harvest season. 

Left: Breidenbach Brothers partners include, left to right: Luke, Dave, Jack and Steve.  Steve is the father of Dave and Jack; Luke is Dave’s son.  Dave’s other son, Don, also is a partner in the longtime family farm, based near Iliff, Colo.

    The Breidenbach sugarbeet legacy in northeastern Colorado goes back a long way — all the way, in fact, to 1905 when Frank Breidenbach began growing the crop for the new beet factory at Sterling.  

    So much has changed since then, of course.  But the Breidenbach farming enterprise — now comprised of one of Frank’s grandsons, two great-grandsons and two great-great-grandsons — has continued producing sugarbeets and evolving with the times.  Today, the family operation includes Stephen, his sons Dave and Jack, along with Dave’s sons, Don and Luke.  Together, they farm 5,000 acres of Logan County ground, including 1,100 acres of sugarbeets, another 2,500 of corn and 1,400 in alfalfa.  Ninety percent of their acreage is under center-pivot irrigation systems that utilize ditch and reservoir water.