TWIN FALLS — Pray for your windshield.

It’s harvest time for sugar beets.

Amalgamated Sugar Co. began last week collecting beets from area growers for processing at its Twin Falls and Paul factories. As part of its “early harvest,” Amalgamated invited select growers to transport beets to dozens of satellite collection stations throughout Magic Valley. Next month, all other growers will make the haul.

It’s the busiest time of year for beet growers, sugar factory employees, some truck drivers and — believe it or not — a few sanitation workers.

With more than 40 satellite collection stations open between now and the end of harvest, which is expected in early November, PSI Environmental Systems is scrambling. Each station has two portable toilets maintained by PSI.

Its not just sugar beets being collected.

“We’ve got to not only deliver equipment but develop a routing system for servicing each collection site twice a week,” said Les Reitz, sales manager at PSI. “Yeah, we’re busy.”

PSI deposits waste from the toilets, which it collects using a single truck, in Twin Falls’ sewer system, a sewage waste area near Burley or the Twin Falls landfill, whichever is more convenient.

Most of the harvest work, though, happens at the collection sites. Growers bring their crops to these points via trucks they own or hire.

At the collection points, the beets are weighed. Then, they’re dropped onto a conveyor belt that shuttles them to a screen that shakes off loose dirt. Once cleaned, the beets go to another conveyor belt that takes them up a boom and onto massive piles.

Growers are paid according to sugar content, so a few beets are taken from each truckload for laboratory analysis. One ton of beets is usually worth between $38 and $42, said Len Kerbs, Amalgamated’s Twin Falls district agriculture manager.

Amalgamated, this area’s only sugar beet refining company, expects to collect about 850,000 tons of Magic Valley beets in the next two months. At $40 at ton, that’s $34 million worth of beets.

The majority of that money doesn’t come until later in the fall. The early harvest period — between now and Oct. 6 — accounts for only 12 percent of the total harvest.

All early-harvest beets are processed immediately. The other beets will be stored and processed between now and February.

From the collection sites, beets are trucked to Amalgamated factories in Twin Falls and Paul. At the Twin Falls factory, Jerry Dickard oversees the 200 trucks that bring beets from collection sites. This time of year, he works 12-hour days, he said Tuesday as he watched a never-ending stream of beets fall onto a pile at least 200 feet long and 30 feet high.

“We’re handling 7,000 tons of beets every day this time of year,” he said. “Yup, that’s a lot of beets.”

Times-News staff writer Matt Christensen covers natural resources. Contact him at 735-3243 or at matt.christensen@lee.net.

Beets: By the numbers 850,000 The weight in tons of beets Amalgamated Sugar Co. expects to collect from Magic Valley growers. 3 Idaho’s rank in total production among beet-growing states in 2005. $204,421,000 Cash value of 2005 sugar beet crop. 16 The percent of the nation’s total sugar beet production contributed by Idaho. 6 Number of ounces of sugar usually extracted from an average, 2.5-pound beet. — Sources: Interviews with Amalgamated Sugar Co. employees and from the U.S. Department of Agriculture at www.nass.usda.gov.