Sugar Beet Farmer Math

In an effort to make math more interesting for kids and to make my kids understand that math really is important, I have started a series of Farmer Math questions to go along with the Flat Aggie reports.  These are patterned after the blog Bedtime Math.  Some of the questions are easy enough for pre-schoolers and sometimes I come up with some to even challenge high school seniors.

These questions follow the report Flat Aggie Learns About Sugar Beets.  Additional educational materials can be found in the post All about Sugar Beets from The Illinois Farm Girl.

1.  Sugar beets are planted in April and are ready to harvest the first of October.  How many months does it take fro sugar beets to grow?


2.  4 pound of sugar beets makes 5 ounces of sugar.  How much sugar can you get from 20 pounds of sugar beets?

3.  The tap root on a sugar beet is usually 4 feet long.  In really dry years, the root can be 10 feet long.  How much longer is the tap root in dry years?

4.  Farmers plant five sugar beet seeds per foot.  How many sugar beet seeds would you need to plant a row ten feet long?

5.  A sugar beet farmer delivered enough sugar beets to produce 3,285 ounces of sugar.  How many pounds would that be? (Rounded to the nearest whole number.)

ANSWERS: 1.) 6 months  2.) 25 ounces  3.) 6 feet  4.) 50 seeds  5.) 205 pounds

If you are a teacher or homeschooler that would like more information to go with the Flat Aggie reports, send me a message on my contact form.  Along with the report and the Farmer Math questions, we send each teacher an additional page of activities, crossword puzzles and sometimes a few hands on activities.

-A Kansas Farm Mom