11-11 IAN Sugar Beet Family

A day in the life of a sugar beet grower. I’m DS…

Burley, Idaho is sugar beet country and the Darrington family has teamed up, Brian, Jeff and their Dad, to farm. We went out while they were digging and had a conversation with Brian. Machines are running in the background so it gives a real taste of farm life: “We are digging Sugar Beets today. It’s a family operation I got my Dad in the topper while Im doing this. My brother Jeff is my partner, he’s the one that drives the digger most of the time.

 We farm independent of one another, we borrow our own money, but we farm together. We basically split all the fields, so if I’m purchasing a field, I obviously don’t own it but Ill charge him a rent and the fields that he owns, Ill pay rent to him. We split everything 50/50 but we are responsible for our own expenses. We take care of our own living expenses and try to simplify life like that.

 In order for it to work, for us to be in business, we had to team up and we had to team up on some of these purchases as far as equipment goes and basically skilled labor. It’s pretty tough to hire a guy to help you when you cant afford it so we’ve teamed up this way and we have different talents. I deal with the help and take care of the water. I kind of run around more and he’s and artist I would say. He really likes to have the digger and planter operating exactly as they are supposed to.

 That is my best attempt at poetry. A hard working American farm family. No frills. Just feeding America.