Creation of a Carrot

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- Today, we meet with Adam, Stacey, and Ryan Ruter at their farm, Highlands Farm, in Potter County to discuss their processing carrot production.

They grow the only processing carrots in Pennsylvania.

Potter County's climate favors carrot production with warm days and cool nights in the summer.

This combined with fall frost promotes sweetening and sizing of carrots.

When temperatures are cooled late in the season, carrot yield can increase by one ton per acre each week.

Good yields are highly dependent on weather and how much moisture fields receive.

The Ruter's crop is dependent on rainfall only.

The two markets for processing carrots are dicing and coins.

Dicing carrots are classified as 1.5 inches in diameter or larger, and carrots for coins are less than 1.5 inches.

The Ruters grow for the dicing market and individual carrots can reach eight pounds in size.

One challenge that many farmers in Pennsylvania must overcome is rocky soils.

Removing rocks from soil is a seemingly endless task that must be completed from field preparation through harvest.

Deep soils are best for growing straight carrots.

However, because the Ruter's carrots are destined for processing, they do not need to meet aesthetic requirements demanded for fresh market carrots.

Fields are prepared by pre-shaping beds spaced 36 inches apart.

This is done with the aid of a four-row bed former from the Spudnik Equipment Company.

In the past, the Ruters grew potatoes.

They have adapted their potato equipment for processing carrots.

With their soil conditions, the Ruters use S-tines to break up the soil crust.

These tines can spring back when sufficient resistance is met, such as when striking a rock.

A David tooth tine is located right behind the S-tines to loosen the soil even more.

The loose soil meets up with the forming boards in the back to build the hill for planting.

One of the biggest challenges in carrot production is getting a good stand.

A good stand means that there are carrots occupying most of the row.

There are no large gaps from seed that never germinated or small seedlings that rotted after germination.

To get a good stand, seeds are planted in April just under the soil line and will require a lot of water for germination.

These seeds will not germinate, even with a slight soil crust.

High temperatures after planting can quickly dry soils, which affects germination.

On the other hand, a heavy rain after planting can wash out seed.

The Ruters are experimenting with primed carrot seed.

Prime seed has gone through a pre-germination process resulting in germination in about four days, compared to taking up to two weeks, depending on weather.

Prime seed provides an advantage when conditions are dry.

Pelleted seed, on the other hand, is beneficial for germination when you have heavy precipitation in early spring.

Seeds are planted on the pre-shaped beds one-and-a-half to two inches apart for a plant population of about 160,000 plants per acre.

For the Ruters, seeding is done with a Four-Row Monosem NG Plus Vacuum Seeder.

Let's look at some of the major components of this seeder.

The seed hopper is the white container on the top.

There are precision cast-aluminum vacuum meter housings with stainless steel seed disks located here.

There are also depth-gauge wheels, as well as rubber V closing wheels.

With this machine, if set up right and customized based on soil conditions and seed size, you should see good seed separation out of the hopper and into the soil, precise seed spacing, proper depth of seed in the soil, and good seed-to-soil contact for germination.

Notice in the front of the vacuum seeder is another set of hoppers.

This holds the fertilizer, which gets placed down into the soil before the seed.

Carrots do not have many insect pest issues.

However, leafhoppers and tarnished plant bugs can be a problem.

Regular scouting for diseases and insect pests will determine when and if pesticides are used.

Deer are also an issue for carrot plants.

The Ruters use propane cannons, but deer quickly adapt.

Losses from deer feeding is a part of growing carrots for the Ruters.

As Stacey says, "Deer have to eat, too." Other than getting a good stand, insect pests, and deer, another challenge for carrot growth is managing weeds.

Hilling of carrots where the soil is slightly cultivated and thrown up onto the carrot bed helps with weed control.

This picture shows carrots that were hilled toward the end of June.

Before carrots are removed from the ground, there are two steps that occur before the harvester runs through the field.

Since these carrots are for the processing market, there is no need for the foliage to stay attached.

A Brillion Flail Mower is run down the rows to shred the foliage off the carrot.

With the foliage removed, it is onto the next step.

Processors do not want the green shoulders on the carrot top.

To remove the undesirable portion of the carrot, the Ruters use a Grimme vegetable crowner.

The spinning disks on the rear-mounted crowner cut off the tops.

Up to 20% of the carrots can have some green at the tops and still be accepted.

This can be tricky to accomplish because carrots can come out of the ground at different heights.

The crowner is constantly adjusted to maximize carrot harvest and minimize green tops.

This is a row of carrots that have been topped and are ready to be removed from the soil with a harvester.

A Grimme Two-Row Harvester is pulled through the recently-topped field to extract the carrots.

Let's take a closer look at the lifting area where the carrots are removed from the soil.

The digging head adjusts its digging depth with gauge wheels, depending on soil contours and conditions.

The spades run into the soil and lift the carrots.

The large spring-loaded disc coulters funnel soil and carrots into the digging head and onto the webbing.

The webbing is constantly vibrating to shake off soil and remove small rocks.

A series of webs move the carrots up to the working platform.

Let's watch this in action.

Notice the movement of the spring-loaded disks as the harvester moves down the row.

The carrots continue up the webbing, onto the working platform where a four-person crew removes rocks and rotten carrots.

From this working area, the carrots go up an elevator and into dump carts that are alongside the harvester.

Once a cart is filled, it's emptied into a tractor trailer and carrots are taken directly to the processing facility.