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2014 Leadership Dinner

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Bill Walker, partner and CEO of Gold Dust Potato Processors and Walker Brothers farm, talking to guests at the 2014 Leadership Dinner.
Bill talking about the future of Gold Dust at the 2014 Leadership Dinner

The night of November 22nd, 2014 was cold and wet.  Rain yielded to snow as the gray skies faded to the black of night.  Though many in the Klamath Basin looked to the skies and to the ground hoping and celebrating perhaps the end to our dry spell, the partners and employees of gold Dust and Walker Brothers were celebrating for another reason – the Annual Leadership Dinner!

Every year, the partners of Gold Dust Potato Processors and Walker Brothers invite their most valuable employees and leaders out to dinner and drinks to celebrate the achievements of the year, discuss the plans for the upcoming year and get feedback about changes that could improve not only the businesses, but the working environment.  This year, dinner was held in Klamath Falls at Mr. B’s.  Though the threat of slick roads and snow kept a few folks home, we were quite pleased with everyone who could make it!

While dinner was being served, Bill, John, Weston and Tricia talked about various aspects of the farm, new crops and markets to be explored and how the farm is going to change in the next few years.  When the conversation turned to what our leaders were thinking about, two subjects came up more than any – safety and communication.  Over the past few years, Gold Dust and Walker Brothers have been striving to implement a culture of safety, and for the most part it’s been successful.  However, there’s always room for improvement, and our leaders came up with some good suggestions, which also made the perfect segue to the talk about communication.  As a result, we’re looking into not only getting everyone on the same page through multi-lingual safety training, but also encouraging our English speaking employees to learn Spanish and our native Spanish-speakers to continue with English.

Though talking about business is an important part of the Leadership Dinner, it’s also our chance to highlight some of our most valuable employees.  This year, instead of the partners picking who they thought was doing and outstanding job, the employees were polled who were the MVPs for Gold Dust and Walker Brothers. Overwhelmingly, the husband and wife team of Bart and Lexi Crawford led the votes.  Lexi’s leadership and get-it-done attitude made her Gold Dust’s recognized employee while Bart’s dedication and aptitude towards leadership made him the farm’s pick.  Along with Bart’s bouquet of roses, the Crawfords were treated to a trip to Las Vegas from the partners.

The Leadership Dinner was also a chance to recognize another important cog of the Gold Dust and Walker Brothers’ machine.  David Petersen is someone who started off with Walker Brothers out in the fields moving pipe.  From there, he has proven himself to be the kind of person who isn’t daunted by taking on new tasks or responsibilities.  From driving hay and spud truck to covering in the front office to helping out with exports, David has always been willing to take on whatever has been thrown at him with a good attitude.  For those reasons, David has been an outstanding employee and someone Walker Brothers and Gold Dust is proud to have on their payroll.

When you get into a room with over a dozen people who are as dedicated as this group is and who are looking at ways to make our businesses better, it’s humbling.  Gold Dust and Walker Brothers are blessed with success, and a big part of that success has to do with the quality of the people that were in that room that wintry November night.  To the folks at the Leadership Dinner, thank you for your dedication and to the qualities that you bring to our businesses.  If you weren’t sure by the time the partners were finished speaking at the end of the dinner, you are appreciated and we wouldn’t be as successful as we are without you.

The Potato Festival and Our Traditions

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The Gold Dust Potatoes float makes it way down the highway at the 77th Annual Klamath Basin Potato Festival parade.
Happy Potato Festival!

The Klamath Basin Potato Festival is a tradition that brings folks from all over the Klamath Basin to Merrill to celebrate the area’s most popular tuber.  If you grew up in the rural Klamath Basin, the Potato Festival likely served as your social backdrop to the ag community.  With the crowning of the Potato Festival Queen, the Spud Bowl football games, the Saturday parade followed by a free potato feed, it’s a tradition that we’re happy and proud to be a part of.  And every year, the Potato Festival seems to get bigger.  Bigger floats, more parade entries, food carts from around the area, the addition of Pop Warner football games, bed races and now a car show – there is almost literally something for everyone.

Against the backdrop of the Spud Festival, Gold Dust has created a few annual traditions of its own.  One of those traditions is on the Friday of the Potato Festival, the Gold Dust Staff gets together for a potato lunch.  This year, Jan Walker invited the office staff up to her home to dress up baked chipping potatoes (yes, you can bake ’em!) for lunch.  From chili and cheese sauce to bacon and jalepeños and everything in between, everyone brought something to top their spud with.  Not only was it a great way for the staff to get out of the office and hang out together, it was delicious!

 

Another tradition that has developed over the past couple of years is Bring Your Kid to Work day.  Between Potato Festival Friday usually being a teacher’s in-service day and the afternoon of it being dedicated to working on the parade float, the office staff has been bringing their children to work to help out.  This year was a little different than years past in that the kids were treated to tours of the packing shed as well as the cellars.  “We’re always giving tours to other people and school children,” said Tricia Hill.  “So this year, Lexi and I decided we should give the kids of the people who work here a tour so they can see what happens where their moms and dads work.”  Out of everything the children saw, it seems the big pile of spuds and the plenum made the cellars a clear winner.

 

And of course, it wouldn’t be a Potato Festival without a float!  This year, the festival’s theme was “Spud-Tacular”, and there were plenty of “spudtacular” entries.  Gold Dust and Walker Brothers’ float was pulled by one of our International Express trucks and featured a balloon rainbow leading to a pot of golden chipping potatoes.  A few Gold Dust and Walker Brothers folks showed up to help decorate the float Saturday morning, and their dedication nabbed us first place in the Commercial Division of the parade!  Well done!

Before wrapping up this post, we’d like to give a big thanks to Jan Walker for putting on the potato feast in her home, as well as to the Gold Dust staff for planning and putting together the float.  It turned out great, and thanks to your dedication we’re able to show our involvement in the community.  See you all next Potato Festival!

Potato Harvest Ends

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Potato trucks and tractor are lined up as a tractor pulling a potato bulker fills a spud truck in the background at the Running Y Ranch near Klamath Falls, Oregon.
What a gorgeous day for harvesting potatoes!

Just a little over a month ago, we announced the “official” beginning of the 2014 potato harvest.  Now, just a little over a month later, we’re announcing it’s officially over.  And what a spud harvest it has been!

As we say every year, every harvest brings it’s own challenges and this one is no different.  With our grain, hay and potato fields all over the Klamath Basin, it’s a dance of moving equipment and trucks over the same highways and roads the public uses.  Not to mention you’re always keeping an eye warily on the weather to see when, and some days if, the crews will get to dig.

This year, for the most part, the weather was beautiful for digging potatoes.  With very little precipitation, the warm, sunny days made you remember why Klamath Falls is called the Sunshine City of Oregon.  The scant bit of rain we did receive barely slowed down potato harvest and helped knock the dust out of the air (not to mention perk up the hay crops all over the Basin!).

While we’ve built a reputation for providing high quality chipping potatoes, this year we also had a few fields planted with organic potatoes and seed potatoes.  The organic red and fingerling potatoes turned out beautifully, just like our chipping potatoes did.  The last field we dug was seed potatoes, and while the constant sterilization of equipment made the last days of harvest drag on, Monday, October 13 saw it all come to an end.  And yes, the potato seed looks great too!

To put our harvest season into perspective, from August through October, we were cutting around 5,000 acres of grain and approximately 1,600 acres of 4th cutting alfalfa hay while digging about 2,300 acres of potatoes.  Some days all three crops were being harvested though towards the end we were only digging potatoes.  But as you can see, it takes a large, dedicated crew to make sure our crops are cut, dug and put into storage.

The photos below are from the last chipping potato field we harvested on October 9th, known around Gold Dust and Walker Brothers as “The Elk Field” on the Running Y.  How’d it get that name?  Earlier in the year, you could see where the elk were coming down from the trees on the hillside to eat a few spuds, wallow in the tilled up dirt and make trails through the field to neighboring hay and grain fields.  Who says wildlife doesn’t like farming?

 

Before we wrap up this post, John, Bill, Weston and Tricia would like to thank everyone who worked with us through harvest. It’s takes a lot of people to not only get the crops into storage, but to keep the crews moving, the spuds going to customers and everyone getting paid.  Whether you work in the office, on the packing shed floor, out in the fields, on the storage shed lines, in the spud trucks, in the potato bulkers or are the managers that make it happen, thank you very much.  It’s been another successful harvest, and we know we can’t do it without having the best crews in the Klamath Basin.  Thank you.

It’s Harvest Time!

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Chipping potatoes being unloaded and going into a storage shed at Gold Dust Potatoes' Malin, Oregon facility.
It’s Harvest Time!

Summer is over.  While the roads fill with school buses, around the Klamath Basin they also fill with farm equipment.  The school yards fill with kids at recess while the fields fill with farm crews, swathers, bailers, combines and bulkers.  The warm days, green leaves clinging to the trees and calendar might say we’re all still in summer.  However, if you ask any kid what time of year it is, they’ll likely reply it’s fall.  And if a farmer doesn’t say it’s autumn, they’ll tell you it’s harvest time!

Walker Brothers started harvesting grain in the beginning of August.  Despite the smoky skies all summer long and the drought, the yields have been good.  The only real obstacle to wrapping up grain cutting has been waiting for a few fields to finish ripening.  So far our crews have been doing an excellent job of getting the grain cut and into storage, making it as streamlined a process as possible.

On Monday of last week (September 8th), as grain harvest worked nearer towards  ending, the first official day of potato harvest began.  Due to the nature of chipping potatoes, we often have some of the first potato bulkers in the field.  This year, along with the chippers, we’re also harvesting some beautiful organic table potatoes.  Again, despite the drought, our spuds are looking pretty good so far and with a week under our belt things are going smoothly in the field and at our storage sheds!  And as of the publishing of this post, we’re already a third of the way done.

As if we didn’t have enough going on, if you listen closely, you can hear our potato processing plant running.  Semis with refrigerated trailers are idling outside, waiting for the crews to get potatoes loaded.  While it’s not running at full tilt just yet, the number of loads being shipped and the number of hours our shed crew will only increase from here on out.  And if you ask the office staff, one look at payroll will tell you we’re busy!

Did we forget to mention we’re getting our fourth cutting of alfalfa wrapped up as well as get our straw put away?

Even though harvest is one of our busiest times of year, it doesn’t mean there isn’t a little time for fun.  This year at the Tulelake Butte Valley Fair, some of our employees competed in the Hay Squeeze driving contest and the demolition derby.  Operating our trademark white with a red stripe squeeze was Toby Turner.  Though Toby mostly handles big bales, he did an excellent job managing the small bales and managed to earn 7th place.  In the demolition derby, the white and red theme was carried on to a beat up Lincoln that our farm mechanics, Don Sconce, Mark Smith and Tristen Wilson put together.  Don thrashed around the infield in the white and red beast, taking home 4th place.  Well done, gentlemen!

 

As we’ve said in past posts about potato harvest, every year is a different adventure and this year will be another.  With any luck, it will end as smoothly as it’s started and everyone will finish safely and sanely.  Good luck to our crews in the fields, in the sheds  and in the offices – and thank you for your hard work and dedication during one of our busiest times of year!

And a special thank you to Katie Walker and Lexi Crawford for the additional photos of the Tulelake Fair!  Thanks, ladies!

2014 Open House Field Day

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Gold Dust and Walker Brothers' visitor at their processing plant in Malin, Oregon, for a shed tour during their 14th Annual Open House Field Day.
Thank you to all who made it to our 14th Annual Open House Field Day!

Gold Dust Potato Processors’ 14th Annual Open House Field Day will certainly be a day to remember.  Some may remember it for the weather; most will remember it for the good our guests did for our local chapter of Make-A-Wish.

The day started off at Mike and Wanda’s restaurant in Tulelake, California, where Bill kicked off the breakfast meeting with a few introductions of our guests from RaboBank, Paul Sproule and the “Sexy Lady”, Gold Dust’s latest addition.  After a discussing the latest projects at Gold Dust and Walker Brothers, Jeff Gibson, Executive Director at RaboBank International, amused our guests with an entertaining yet informative talk about the interest rates and the global financial markets.  Following him, Greg Addington of the Klamath Water Users Association updated our visitors about the Klamath Basin’s current drought and how the KBRA would have made the situation different.  Before everyone headed to Malin for the shed tour, our group watched a video about a Portland 8-year-old named Atticus.  Atticus was diagnosed with a Wilms’ tumor and for his wish he’s asked Make-A-Wish Oregon for a scrimmage between his soccer team and the Portland Timbers.

At Gold Dust’s packing shed, our visitors checked out our current crop of potatoes, including several organic potato varieties we’ve been successfully growing, as well as toured the facility to see how the plant operates during shipping season.  Since we couldn’t call it a Field Day without visiting some fields, everyone climbed into their rigs to meet the “Sexy Lady” after a quick group photo in front of the potato tables.

Though the morning was slightly cool with a few clouds overhead, as our group made its way to the Running Y the sky became a bit more dark and formidable.  However, a few thunder clouds only made the “Sexy Lady”, the recently acquired “B” and “C” line fields at the Running Y Ranch, a little more dramatic.  Our guests were shown the rich, black peat that makes these fields so “sexy” as well as a sample of the spuds growing beneath.  As a part of the field visits, HoneyComb was going to give a demonstration of their latest ag UAV, but wind gusts topping 20 MPH kept the drone grounded.  Instead, the HoneyComb crew discussed some of the latest federal regulations concerning drones, showed off the design of their latest UAV and fielded questions from our guests.

After a driving tour of the A-Line fields and lunch at the Running Y headquarters, it was time for golf!  The clouds only grew blacker and distant thunder made a few folks wary of venturing onto the fairways and greens.  But in true Klamath Basin fashion, the storm split, threatening the west side of the Basin with lightning and dumping buckets of hail and rain on its southern end while the Running Y resort was spared.  Though a little breezy, the weather was perfect for swinging the clubs!

At the dinner that followed, Gold Dust and Walker Brothers’ guests were treated to a meal of chicken and beef as well as drinks.  After everyone had a chance to eat, Weston introduced his wife, Katie, to the crowd.  Katie and Jan have been working with the local chapter of Make-A-Wish Oregon.  Last year was the first year Gold Dust used the Open House Field Day dinner as an opportunity to raise money for Make-A-Wish, and after Katie spoke about the good Make-A-Wish has done for kids with terminal illnesses in our area, our guests generously opened their wallets.  By the end of the night, our guests had raised $4,500, which was matched by Gold Dust to bring the total cash donation to $9,000.  On top of that, our guests donated another 150,000 airline miles!  The energy generated from giving made everyone smile, and the knowledge that the funds will help local, Klamath County kids is great for our community.

 

Though the fundraising for Make-A-Wish was incredible, another amazing event that has been decades in the making was announced.  Since 1974, Bill and John have weathered the ups and downs of farming together, and have grown two incredible businesses that will carry on their legacy.  To celebrate their 40th anniversary of farming, they raised a cup not only to their success, but to the two women who made it possible – Bill’s wife, Jan, and John’s wife, Brenda.  Without the support of their amazing wives, John and Bill concluded they would never have been able to do what they’ve done and thanked Brenda and Jan with two beautiful bouquets of flowers.

And of course, it wouldn’t be a traditional Open House Field Day without the golf awards!

Every Open House Field Day is fun, and this year’s was no exception.  On behalf of the Walker Family to our guests, thank you very much for your support.  We appreciate doing business with, and after seeing the generosity demonstrated at the dinner for Make-A-Wish, we work with amazing people.  And we’d also be remiss if we didn’t thank Lexi for her hours of planning this event and keeping it moving along.  We’d also like to thank the rest of our staff and crews – from the office to the shed and out on the farm, for getting our facilities and our fields ready to our customers and business partners.  Thank you very much.

Notice Anything Different?

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A photograph of a laptop, smartphone and tablet with GoldDustFarms.com's new homepage.
Check it out – GoldDustFarms.com looking good on laptops, smartphones and tablets!

Don’t think you’re on the correct Web site?  Worried that our site has been hijacked?  Just wondering what it is you’re looking at?  Tah-dah!  We’ve re-designed our site!

After several years of loyal service, it was time to retire the old theme.  We’ve retained all of the information we had before, added a few new things, and will be going through and making a few small changes (small compared to completely changing the look of GoldDustFarms.com!) here and there to give our visitors a better understanding of Gold Dust Potato Processors and Walker Brothers.

One thing that is very exciting about the new theme is that it is completely mobile-friendly!  We dabbled with a few plug-ins in the past that were supposed to make it easier to view GoldDustFarms.com on smartphones and tablets, but all they really did was create a headache.  Now, you can easily visit our site, check out the blog and peruse our photos and more from the convenience of your mobile device.  Pretty slick, huh?

We hope  you like the new theme as much as we do, and we hope the mobile theme adds a touch of convenience to your visits.  And please, if you encounter any problems with the new theme, let us know.

 

It’s Highway Clean-Up Time Again!

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Yellow garbage bags from Gold Dust's litter pick up along Micka Road in front of Gold Dust Potato Processors' sign in Malin, Oregon.
It’s time for Gold Dust’s Adopt-A-Highway clean up!

If you’ve traveled between Merrill and Malin, then you’ve undoubtedly seen the sign at the corner of Harpold Road and Highway 50 proclaiming that section of highway has been adopted by Gold Dust Potatoes and J&W Walker Farms.  With a bit of sunshine in the forecast and shipping season coming to end, it was the perfect time for our crew to get out and pick up a bit of trash!

On June 3rd, Lexi Crawford, Sarah Mendez, Trish Briones, Nayeli Pena, Danell Hoppezak, and Lisa Mount donned the day-glow yellow vests of the Litter Patrol and hit the road, cleaning from the intersection of Harpold Road and Highway 50 all the way into Malin by the park.  According to Lexi, some of the more interesting finds included video game controllers, human hair and a boomerang.  Kind of makes you wonder what’s been going on along the highway!

Once Gold Dust’s section of adopted highway was declared trash-free, the intrepid group of garbage gatherers decided to clean up the area of Micka Road that our packing shed and other facilities sit on.  In no time, they had several bags of rubbish collected and left the area looking a whole lot nicer.  By the time they were finished, between the two locations the Clean Up Crew picked up 20 bags worth of garbage and debris.

Gold Dust and Walker Brothers have been a part of Oregon’s Adopt-A-Highway program since 2009.  Every time our crew hits the pavement, it’s fun to see the random stuff they find and it’s great to help make our area a little cleaner.  A big thank you to this year’s clean-up crew – and thank you for taking the initiative to spiff up Micka Road as well!

Spring Farming Time

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A John Deere tractor pulls a ripper through a field near Gold Dust's campus in Malin, Oregon.
Rain or shine, it’s spring farming time!

It’s been an odd spring.  With that said, the only thing that’s consistent in the Klamath Basin is the fact the weather and seasons are never consistent.

The extremely mild winter combined with the warmer temps of this spring are greening our winter wheat and alfalfa crops.  While the already-planted crops are putting the grow on,  our other grain crops are being planted and potato seed is being hauled, cut and put in the ground. Though it may seem like alfalfa doesn’t need much, it’s the time of year for harrowing our hay fields and getting them ready for growing season.  And while all of the spring farming is going on, our potato packing shed is still emptying out our cellars and getting chipping potatoes to our customers while the office staff is recovering from another busy tax season.  To say spring is “busy” at Gold Dust and Walker Brothers would be an understatement.

This year, we’re staring down the barrel at a drought. Our dry winter hasn’t left much snow in the mountains or water in our lakes and reservoirs.  It’s forecasting to be a dry summer, and if it is, we’re hoping our years of planning has left us in a good position to make our way through this drought and getting chipping potatoes, as well as hay and grain, to our customers.  We feel we’ll have another successful year despite the challenges ahead.

For the sake of our farm, the farms of our neighbors and the communities that make up the Klamath Basin, keep your fingers crossed for more rain.  We will be.  And let’s hope it’s another safe and successful planting season!

Team Gold Dust Hits The Walk For Wishes!

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Rory Hill, Amelia Rogers, Walker Crawford, Mari Hill and Penny Crawford wait to start the 2014 Walk For Wishes for Make-A-Wish Oregon.
Team Gold Dust looks ready to walk (and roll!) for the Walk For Wishes

Though rain may have threatened Salem over the weekend, that didn’t stop superheroes small and big to gather at Riverside Park in Salem for the annual Walk For Wishes on Saturday, April 26th.

This year, Make-A-Wish Oregon wanted the Walk to celebrate the Wish Heroes – local wish kids – and asked all who attended to dress up as their favorite hero.  Whether it was a fireman’s outfit, a princess, wizard or superhero, all were welcomed to the 5K walk where family activities and ice cream was enjoyed by all who attended.

This year, Gold Dust’s Walk For Wishes team (organized by Katie Walker) increased its size to 13 members and raised a total of $545.  The goal for the Walk For Wishes was to raise a total of $60,000, and they came close at $58,339.  When you consider that on the average it takes $7,000 to grant a wish, that’s enough for nearly eight kids to get their wishes to come true!

A big thank you to those who contributed to Team Gold Dust as well as to Make-A-Wish Oregon.  And a special thank you goes out to those who walked for Team Gold Dust – Katie Walker, Lexi Crawford, Veronica Regan, and David Selvog.  And a super-special thank you goes out to the little heroes who walked for our team – Rory and Mari Hill, Walker and Penny Crawford, Micah and Elijah Selvog, and Amelia Rogers.  It looks like they had a good time for a good cause!

 

Yep, It’s Still Shipping Season

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Semi-trucks wait to be loaded with chipping potatoes at Gold Dust's Malin, Oregon, packing shed.
Truck drivers patiently wait for their trailers to be loaded with chipping potatoes

Judging by the amount of farm equipment working over the fields and tell-tale signs of dust and smoke rising into the sky, it would seem that spring farming is upon us.  And it is.  As we speak, Walker Brothers’ tractors are getting the fields ready for chipping potatoes and planting grain.  Though the sun, blue skies and green leaves of alfalfa and winter wheat poking through the ground have us looking forward to the growing season, that doesn’t mean shipping season is over yet.

Our parking lot is still full of semis pulling refers, waiting to take potatoes to our customers while spud trucks run from the cellars to our packing shed.  Inside the shed, our crews are pulling culls, sewing up sacks and moving pallets of spuds that are ready to ship.  With our processing plant running at full tilt and our farm crews already heading to the fields, one could make an argument that this is our busiest time of year.  When you take into consideration that we’re already getting potato seed in for this year’s crop and our office staff is also putting in long hours, it’s at least a very close second to harvest.

If our plant manager, Matt Thompson, is right, the end of shipping season is near.  He estimates the packing shed will go quiet in mid-May, at which time the tempo in the fields will be running high.  Until then, let’s hope shipping season continues along safely and look forward to things slowing down a little when shipping season ends.  But just a little – it’ll be crazy in the fields!

 

 

 

From Our Farm Blog

We’re Hiring!

Looking for a job? Check out our current Employment Opportunities!

Our farm keeps growing – and it’s potato harvest – which means we have a lot of openings. From jobs on our farm to office positions in Malin, we’re looking for dedicated, diligent folks to join our team.

If you’re a truck driver with a CDL, be sure to check out our updated compensation package!

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