RUPERT, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) —Fall’s first freeze has signaled to farmers in the Magic Valley that it’s time to harvest sugar beets, marking the beginning of a critical month-long harvest season.

Grant 4D Farms grows more than 6,000 acres of sugar beets and has around one month to complete the harvest. Sugar beets are one of the last crops to be harvested each year.

According to Executive Vice President Taylor Grant, the crop needs time to accumulate sugar before harvest can begin.

“For them to get to that point, it needs to start getting cold. That cold feeling that they’ll feel towards the fall time triggers them to say, hey, I got to get ready for the winter time,” Grant said.

Once the beet reaches its highest sugar content, harvest begins with a two-step process.

“They first go throu

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