Gold Dust & Walker Farms

  • Home
  • How We Grow
    • Our Partners
    • Our Farms
    • Walker Brothers
    • Gold Dust Potatoes
      • Employees
        • Login
      • Our Sheds
        • Odenberg Titan
  • Watch Us Grow
    • Farm Blog
    • Farm Videos
    • Press Releases
  • What We Grow
    • Buy Chipping Potatoes
      • Chipping Potatoes
      • Potato Info
      • Our Potato Farm
      • Potato Harvest
    • Hay For Sale
  • Why We Grow
    • Sustainable Ag
      • Green Manure
      • Organic Farming
      • Pest Management
      • Preserving Wildlife Habitat
      • Soil Conservation
      • Solar Power Initiative
      • The Walking Wetlands
    • Awards & Recognition
    • Boards & Commissions
    • Certifications
  • Grow With Us
    • Employment Opportunities
    • Western States Trucking
    • Contact Us
    • Farm Equipment Sales

Harvest 2019 Is In The Books!

December 4, 2019 By Gold Dust Farms Leave a Comment

Wheat getting harvested at Gold Dust & Walker Farms' Malin, Oregon headquarters.
Cutting grain at our Malin Campus

If you’ve read our posts over the years, when it comes to harvest there’s a very common theme – every harvest has its unique challenges. This year’s harvest was no different.

With grain and potato harvest taking place at the same, along with getting our third and fourth cuttings of dairy-quality alfalfa out of the fields, our farm crews are spread all over the Klamath Basin bringing home the crops. This year, we decided to give ourselves another challenge – our first industrial hemp harvest!

We began cutting grain in at the beginning of August and kept our combines cutting wheat, malting barley and oats clear into mid-November. Though we weren’t able to harvest all of our fields due to the effect of the weather on the crops, we still managed to cut an incredible 7,208 acres. Considering we had fields in the Tulelake area, Malin, the Straits and clear up into the Running Y and Caledonia, our grain harvest crew put in a lot of hours moving equipment, let alone cutting the crop.

A Walker Farms potato bulker harvesting chipping potatoes and loading them into a spud truck.
Digging potatoes down on the Tule Lake lease lands

Speaking of the weather, it definitely posed a challenge to potato harvest. The beautiful, temperate summer gave way to some frigid fall days that kept our potato harvest crews and spud truck drivers out of the fields. Despite that challenge, this was one of our quickest potato harvests to date – we started digging chipping potatoes September 3rd and finished on the 25th of October.  And to give you an idea of how good our potato harvest crew is, we had four 100% bruise free days, and one day we loaded 134 trucks with chipping potatoes. Well done!

At the end of the season, despite the challenges, harvest was successful. Our farm learned some new things, and just as we expected, out farm crews stepped up and showed the dedication necessary to make it successful. Our farm managers and field crews are what help set Walker Farms apart from other growers in the area, and we cannot thank them enough for the hours and commitment they put in every year. Thank you to all – from the offices to the fields – to everyone at Gold Dust & Walker Farms who made this year’s harvest another success.

Filed Under: chipping potatoes, farm, Gold Dust Potato Processors, potato harvest, Walker Farms, wheat

2018 Klamath Basin Potato Festival

November 8, 2018 By Gold Dust Farms 1 Comment

Gold Dust Potatoes and Walker Farms' 2013 Klamath Basin Potato Festival float.
Our epic, award-winning Klamath Basin Potato Festival float from 2013!

For us, it’s hard to think about potato harvest without the Klamath Basin Potato Festival being mentioned. In our last post about potato harvest, we mentioned the Potato Festival in a list of other activities going on during harvest. However, if you look through our Farm Blog, you’ll see we’ve been participating in the Spud Festival for years.

Obviously, our history with the Potato Festival goes back before that.

Years and years ago, before we moved into our processing plant in Malin and weren’t farming as many acres, Jan would gather and clean the potatoes entered for the Spud Festival. Parade time would find the Walker family gathered at the home of Glenna Walker, aka Grammie, aka Bill and John’s mom. The kids would gather candy thrown from the floats while Glenna hosted family, friends and neighbors.

Over the years, things changed and new traditions developed. Our companies started getting more involved with the Spud Festival and creating new rituals. For a few years, we put together floats and tossed candy and bags of potato chips to the crowds, hoping to take home the bragging rights for the best float while the chipping potatoes hand selected by our agronomy team earned ribbons in the potato judging. The office staff started a potato lunch potluck where everybody brings something different to top off baked potatoes with.  Between the camaraderie and community involvement, it created an opportunity for fun during a crazy time of year.

Our Klamath Basin Potato Festival float from 2011

Our traditions have changed again, and in a way have come full circle. The huge floats of years past have gone to the wayside for now as the trucks are needed on the road and our staff is busy. The office potato potluck still lives on, and instead of our agronomy team entering the potatoes for judging, our employees’ kids entered them this year. Still wanting to be involved with the parade and the community, last year we started a new tradition that will likely carry forward. From Grammie’s garage, just across the street from the Merrill Civic Center, our office team handed out hot drinks and potato chips to friends, family and anyone else who came to Merrill to watch the parade.

Gold Dust Potato Processors employee Suzanne Wallace fixing a baked potato at the company's potato potluck.
Suzanne getting in on the potato feast goodness!
Gold Dust Potatoes' office staff at the Gold Dust potato potluck.
Our amazing office staff
Tricia (Walker) Hill adding broccoli to a potato at Gold Dust Potato Processors' office potato potluck.
As you can see by Tricia’s spud, with broccoli added potatoes make a healthy, delicious lunch!
The winner of the largest potato entered by Alli Villasenor at the 2018 Klamath Basin Potato Festival.
The biggest spud at the 2018 Potato Festival entered by Alli Villasenor!
Leo Pena's chipping potato took home third place in the Largest Potato contest at the 2018 Klamath Basin Potato Festival.
Here’s Leo Pena’s third place entry for largest potato!
A group of chipping potatoes that won a blue ribbon at the 2018 Klamath Basin Potato Festival.
Here’s a nice collection of blue-ribbon chipping potatoes!
Marie Wallace, Mari Hill and Penny Crawford handing out hot drinks at the 2017 Klamath Basin Potato Festival parade.
2017 was a bit wetter and colder when we handed out hot chocolate, cider and potato chips at the Potato Festival parade.
Nayeli Pena and the Gold Dust Potato Processors staff preparing to hand out drinks and snacks at the 2018 Klamath Basin Potato Festival parade.
Our office crew was ready to hand out drinks and snacks at the parade.
Gold Dust Potato Processors' office staff getting ready to watch the 2018 Klamath Basin Potato Festival parade.
Our office staff getting ready to watch the Spud Festival parade.

We’re proud to be a part of a community that celebrates ag the way the Klamath Basin Potato Festival does. We’re also proud to have a group of dedicated employees who help us carry participate in the community. Thank you to our staff who helped during the Spud Festival, and thank you to everyone who stopped by for a bag of chips and something to sip!

Filed Under: chipping potatoes, community, gold dust office, Gold Dust Potato Processors, Klamath Basin Potato Festival, potato harvest

Chipping Potato Harvest 2018

November 5, 2018 By Gold Dust Farms Leave a Comment

Two potato bulkers parked in a chipping potato field near Malin, Oregon.Save for fall farming, the fields are mostly quiet again. The hay has been stacked in the barns, waiting to be sold and shipped and the granaries are full of wheat and barley. Chipping potatoes have been piled in our cellars while spud trucks run from the storages to the packing shed instead of from the fields to the storages. Another successful potato harvest is in the books!

This year’s harvest began back in August. Considering we finished up shipping in July, our packing shed didn’t have much time to turn around and get ready for our annual Open House Field Day, let alone for shipping season to start again. But, as we’ve mentioned in the past, we have amazing crews and some of the best employees in the Klamath Basin. Needless to say, they were able to get everything buttoned down and to start shipping!

Gold Dust Potato Processors employee and plant mechanic Felimon Acosta outside the Malin, OR processing plant.
Here’s one of the guys responsible for getting our packing shed ready – Felimon Acosta.
Two employees for Gold Dust Potatoes sort chipping potatoes at the company's Malin, OR campus.
Before they’re washed, chipping potatoes are pre-sorted going into the packing shed.
Employees for Gold Dust Potato Processors sorting washed chipping potatoes at the company's packing shed in Malin, Oregon.
Another round of hand-sorting before our chipping potatoes are shipped!
A crew at Gold Dust Potato Processors sewing sacks of chipping potatoes shut and stacking the sacks on a pallet.
Sew ’em up and ship ’em!

Crews pulling irrigation pipe from a potato field near Malin, OR.
Before this potato field can be dug, the pipe needs to be pulled.

If we were to venture a guess of when our busiest season is, planting and spring farming might get quite a few votes, but it’s probably potato harvest. It takes a lot of work to get the fields ready for digging, let alone the fact we’re cutting grain, still cutting hay, firing up the processing plant and our offices are running at full tilt. Then there’s all the community-related events, like the the Tulelake-Butte Valley Fair at the beginning of September and the Klamath Basin Potato Festival in October. We usually also welcome school tours to check out our shed and learn about agribusiness and how a farm operates. There’s a lot of action during potato harvest, and somehow our crews manage to keep everything rolling along.

Speaking of our crews, we cannot thank them enough for their dedication and the hours they put in to make it another successful potato harvest. From the shed to our offices, from the tractors and trucks to the fields, we manage to get a great group of people together to help us make Gold Dust and Walker Farms a continuing success. It isn’t always easy, but with their help and dedication we make it through. Thank you to everyone who works for us, and for another great harvest!

Gold Dust and Walker Farms grower Kyle Patterson unloading chipping potatoes at Gold Dust Potato Processors' Malin, Oregon campus.
One of our growers, Kyle Patterson, unloading a load of chippers.
A Walker Farms tractor working over a field north of the Gold Dust Potato Processors' Malin, Oregon potato storage facilities.
A little fall farming just north of our cellars.

Though the bulkers have been put to bed, it doesn’t mean we can’t still enjoy a few photos of them in action.  Below are some photos taken just below the Tule Lake leases in the shadow of Mt. Shasta and from the Caledonia, located just Northwest of Klamath Falls by the Running Y Ranch.

A potato truck sits in a potato field in Modoc County, California.
Waiting in a potato field.
Two potato bulkers at work filling a potato truck and a belt trailer being pulled by a tractor.
Two potato diggers fill a spud truck and a belt trailer.
Two potato trucks follow a spud truck and a belt trailer being filled with organic chipping potatoes.
All aboard the potato harvest train!
A full potato truck driving in a chipping potato field in Modoc County, California.
Heading home
A potato bulker fills a spud truck with organic chipping potatoes in a field south of Tulelake, California.
Mt Shasta makes a dramatic backdrop for this organic potato field.
A potato bulker filling a belt trailer being pulled by a tractor in a potato field near Tulelake, California.
Filling a belt trailer with organic chipping potatoes.
A potato truck headed to a field on the Caledonia Farm near Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Heading to the last field on the Caledonia.
A spud truck getting loaded by a potato harvester in a chipping potato seed field near Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Loading a spud truck with chipping potato seed.
Two potato bulkers dig potatoes, filling a spud truck and belt trailer while a tractor pulls a roller in a potato field near Klamath Falls, Oregon.
It takes a lot of equipment to dig potatoes!
A potato harvester fills a spud truck with chipping potato seed on the Caledonia Farm near Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Filling a spud truck.
A potato harvester filling a belt-trailer pulled by a tractor with chipping potato seed near Klamath Falls, Oregon.
That’s a lot of potato seed!
A semi hooks to a belt trailer filled with chipping potato seed after being dropped off by a tractor.
Now that the belt trailer is full, it’s time to haul it home!

Here’s to another successful harvest. Now bring on shipping season!

Filed Under: chipping potatoes, farm, Gold Dust Potato Processors, Klamath Basin Potato Festival, Organic Potatoes, potato harvest, potato shed, potato shipping, Walker Farms

Where Do Kettle Brand Chips Come From? Ask Tater Tracker!

December 4, 2017 By Gold Dust Farms Leave a Comment

Bags of Kettle Brand potato chips on a kitchen counter.
Ever wonder where the potatoes for your Kettle Brand Chips come from?

As a chipping potato grower, we get to work with a lot of recognizable brand names from around world – and it’s pretty cool. People love to know where their food comes from, and as we attempted to answer the question “where do potato chips come from?” in another post, we’ve been given an opportunity to answer it again!

Ever been snacking on Kettle Chips and ever wonder where they came from? Well, they’ve provided an online tool to give you the answer! Kettle Brand has released their Tater Tracker, which highlights their potato growers and the farms where the potatoes come from. As you might recall from our Open House Field Day post – we’re one of those growers. And, yes, Gold Dust and Walker Farms is featured on Kettle Brands’ Tater Tracker page as well as a profile on Weston!

The Kettle Brand potato chips company car at Gold Dust and Walker Farms' Malin, Or campus during the 2017 Open House Field Day.
The Kettle Brand Potato Chips company rig stood out at the Open House Field Day

So, how does the Tater Tracker work? First, you obviously have to get a bag of delicious Kettle Brand potato chips (we recommend buying at least a dozen!). Next, locate the “Best Before” date located on the top right corner on one of the many bags you’ve purchased. Just below it you’ll find two numerical codes – type the second one into the space on the Tater Tracker page and you’ll see which Northwest potato farm your chips came from!

Consumer purchasing Kettle Brand potato chips at a store.
Step 1: Locate and procure bag of Kettle Brand Potato Chips
An image of Kettle Brand potato chips' Tater Tracker grower code.
Step 2: Locate the Tater Tracker code just below the “Best Before” date. Yes, the last four digits too.
A photo of a Samsung Chromebook and Kettle Brand's Tater Tracker page opened with a chipping potato grower code entered in it.
Step 3: Enter the entire code into the Kettle’s Tater Tracker. As you see, the last four digits are entered at the end.

If you look at our grower profile, just under Weston’s bio you’ll see something else that Kettle has done with these pages – a virtual farm tour! While best viewed on an Android device, as the video plays you can turn your phone to get a 360 degree view of our potato farm, the sheds and even chipping potatoes being harvested. It’s a great way to see where your potato chips are coming from and give visitors an idea of what makes each of these potato farms unique.

Video by MaxwellPR.com

We love that Kettle Brand is as proud to work with us as we are with them. Not only does their dedication to sustainable agriculture match ours, it’s great to work with a snack company located in the Pacific Northwest that features local farms on its site. Thank you, Kettle Brand!

 

Filed Under: chipping potatoes, customers and clients, farm, Gold Dust Potato Processors, Organic Potatoes, potato chips, potato customers, potato harvest, potato shed, sustainable farming, walker brothers

Looking Back at Harvest 2017

November 24, 2017 By Gold Dust Farms Leave a Comment

A combine operated by Walker Farms cutting grain at the Running Y near Klamath Falls, Oregon.
That combine makes grain harvest look easy

About the time we feel like we’re getting our feet under us, we realize it’s almost the end of the year. What feels like a short few weeks ago actually turns out to be months, and we realize just how busy it’s been around Gold Dust and Walker Farms.

While we constantly talk about how busy it is around our sheds and farm, the reality is that it is always busy! Regardless of the time of year, there’s always something going on. However, when summer turns into fall, and we’re in the midst of harvest, shipping, organizing labor and doing whatever it takes to get potatoes to our customers, our campus feels more like a beehive than a farm.

Stacks of dairy-quality alfalfa hay being stacked in field outside Malin, Oregon.
Look at all that dairy quality alfalfa!
A tractor pulling a baler in a hay field near Malin, OR.
Make way for hay!

Plant Manager Salvador Vera watches an employee unload a spud truck at Gold Dust's Malin, Oregon campus.
Salvador is keeping an eye on this load

Looking back at this harvest, we started digging chipping potatoes on August 15th. But potato harvest wasn’t the only thing going on in the fields – we were cutting alfalfa hay and grain. In the sheds, our crews were getting the potato processing plant ready for our annual Open House Field Day as well as shipping season, which started in August as well. As for the offices, our staff was coordinating loads, running expanded payrolls, recruiting labor, getting organized for the Open House Field Day and providing support to the farm and shed crews. And all of this is just the beginning of harvest!

Walker Farms potato bulker and spud truck in a field near Newell, California.
Harvesting potatoes near the Peninsula
Walker Farms employees work on a potato harvester in a chipping potato field near Newell, CA.
Not everything goes as planned
Gold Dust Potatoes employees sorting through potatoes that are going to be shipped.
Chipping potatoes being sorted
Gold Dust employees sacking chipping potatoes for shipments in their processing plant in Malin, Oregon.
Sack ’em, sew ’em and ship ’em!

 

As August rolled into September, potato harvest and grain harvest rolled on and we were getting our fourth cutting of hay. Our packing shed was running at full tilt, as were our offices.

Jennifer White with Gold Dust and Walker Farms sponsored Destruction Derby car at the 2017 Tulelake Butte Valley Fair.
Jennifer’s Derby Car – Moxie (photo credit Lexi Crawford)

While there was plenty of action on our campus and in our fields, there was also quite a bit going on in the community. The Tulelake Butte Valley Fair took place from the 7th through the 10th. Along with the regular fair activities, a member of our hay crew, Kelly Cole, participated in the Dash for Cash hay squeeze competition while our agronomist, Jennifer White, thrashed around in the Destruction Derby. The fair also gave Gold Dust an opportunity to support local FFA and 4H

Katrina Lee, Gold Dust Human Resources administrator, at Klamath Community College's 1st Annual Ag Career Fair.
Katrina educated visitors about opportunities in ag and at Gold Dust and Walker Farms

kids at the auction. Speaking of fairs, we also participated in the first annual Ag Career Fair at Klamath Community College. All of that combined made for a busy September!

The employees and children of Gold Dust and Walker Farms at the 2017 Potato Festival in Merill, Oregon
The Gold Dust & Walker Farms Potato Festival Crew!

When October arrived – you guessed – more potato harvest! With grain harvest over and our swathers and balers finally put away, it was now time to start fall farming. Meanwhile, back at the shed trucks lined up waiting to get loaded while our office staff started working on inventory, preparing for the Leadership Dinner and basically doing whatever it takes so we can keep farming and shipping potatoes. We also participated in the Klamath Basin Potato Festival in Merrill, and this year instead of being in the parade we handed out hot chocolate, hot apple cider and small bags of potato chips to anyone who braved the cold rain to watch the tractors, marching bands and floats make their way down the main drag. In years past we’ve had potato harvest wrapped up before the Potato Festival, but this year we weren’t out of the fields until the 25th.

Gold Dust and Walker Farms employees enjoying dinner at Bigoni's Pizza Barn in Malin, Oregon after potato harvest.
Everyone relaxing at the Harvest Party at the end of digging potatoes (photo credit Lexi Crawford)

 

And now we’re deep into November. We just had our annual Leadership Dinner on the 10th which gave our partners an opportunity to share how our businesses have been doing and brainstorm with our employees with what can help Gold Dust and Walker Farms to continue succeeding. At the dinner we also recognized one of our long-term employees, Salvador Vera. Salvador has been with Gold Dust and Walker Farms for 20 years. In that 20 years, he has become an integral part of our businesses, helping with everything from laying out pipe in the spring to helping with harvest and keeping the shed running. As a thank you, Weston presented Salvador with a watch.

Gold Dust and Walker Farms employees discussing ways to make the businesses better at the annual Leadership Dinner.
Our employees discussing changes they’d like to see to make them more effective
Weston Walker thanking long-time employee Salvador Vera at the Gold Dust and Walker Farms 2017 Leadership Dinner.
Thank you for your dedication, Salvador!

Looking back at the last four months, the thing that stands out to us isn’t how much we’ve accomplished or how busy it’s been. What stands out is how many people, working together, can get so much accomplished. Not only does it take an extraordinary number of people to keep our farm and shed running, it takes extraordinary people. We’ve been blessed with loyal, hard-working employees who work as a team. In the offices, the shed or out in the fields, our crews pull together everyday to help make Gold Dust and Walker Farms successful.

Gold Dust and Walker Farms partners at the 2017 Leadership Dinner.
Thank you, Salvador, and thank you Gold Dust and Walker Farms employees!

With that said, thank you to everyone for putting in the dedication it takes to make us successful. As we’ve said before, the modern farm is more than just a guy on a tractor – it’s a small army of dedicated people in the office, fields, and in our case, packing sheds that make it so we can keep doing what we do. Thank you.

Filed Under: chipping potatoes, farm, gold dust office, Gold Dust Potato Processors, grain, Klamath Basin Potato Festival, potato harvest, potato shed, potato shipping, Round-Up, Running Y Ranch, walker brothers, wheat

Harvest Season Has Arrived!

September 29, 2015 By Gold Dust Farms 1 Comment

Two bulkers load potato trucks in a chipping potato field at the Running Y Ranch, Klamath Falls, OR.
It’s harvest time!

Standing on the red-cinder road that runs the edges of the fields of the Running Y Ranch, you can feel the ground moving under your feet as though you’re standing on a hollow drum that someone has began slowly beating.  The only grumble is from a passing potato truck, loaded down with chipping potatoes.  It’s not a storm or an earthquake, but the rumble of harvest.

If you talk to one of our lead hay-guys, Toby Turner, he’ll tell you harvest began for him back in June with the first cutting of alfalfa.  While the people in the swathers and bailers and hay trucks feel harvest is a summer-long endeavor, outside of the hay operations fall harvest has arrived in the Klamath Basin.  The roads and highways are full of bulk beds hauling grain, potatoes, onions, garlic and many of the other crops grown here.  Hay sheds, grain bins and potato cellars are getting fuller around Gold Dust while the fields are getting barer.  While we worried what the drought would do to our part of the world, the long days of digging potatoes are proof that we’ve made it through another hard summer filled with stress over whether or not we’d have enough water to farm.

A combine cutting organic rye near Malin, Oregon.
Here’s the last of our grain fields getting cut
Walker Brothers' Claas Lexion 740 cutting organic rye near Malin, Oregon.
That Claas Lexion 740 is making short work of that organic rye
Claas Lexion 740 cutting organic rye near Malin, Oregon.
Can you see what makes this combine different than our other harvester?
Several pieces of haying equipment in a alfalfa field near Gold Dust's Malin, OR, campus.
It takes a lot of equipment to cut, bail and haul hay
A hay squeeze stacks large bails of hay in an alfalfa field at Gold Dust Potato Processors' packing plant.
Easy does it . . . .
Gold Dust's hay crew gather several tons of hay in one spot to load from an alfalfa field near Malin, OR.
Yes, that is a lot of hay!

Gold Dust and Walker Brothers’ potato harvest kicked off on August 31st this year, making it one of the earliest times we’ve ever been in the fields.  And by the time the first day of fall finally rolled around (September 23rd), we were cutting out last grain field, an organic rye field just outside of Malin.  The rainy spring helped us make it through the summer, and the beautiful, sunny days of September have made grain and potato harvest nice.  As long as we can keep our equipment running, our trucks on the road and everyone safe, there’s a good chance we’ll have potato harvest wrapped up the first full week of October, making it one of the earliest ends to potato harvest we’ve ever had.

Before we get to more photos of harvest, please keep an eye out for all trucks on the road.  Remember, these vehicles are loaded down with tons of crops, making it hard for them to stop quickly for cars that pull out in front of them.  We try to make sure our drivers are safe, but they can only be as safe as the car in front or behind them.

Two tractors prepare a chipping potato field for harvest at the Running Y Ranch outside of Klamath Falls, OR.
It’s dirty work prepping a potato field for digging.
A bulker loads a potato truck in a spud field at the Running Y Ranch near Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Loading a spud truck takes a bit of skill and patience.
A semi-truck hauling a trailer load of chipping potatoes from the Running Y Ranch.
Yes, that’s a big load of chipping potatoes. And yes, it’s pushing a lot of dirt.
Three potato bulkers take a break in a chipping potato field at the Running Y Ranch.
With no trucks, our potato bulkers take a break.
A ten-wheeler and semi hauling a large trailer filled with chipping potatoes unload their spuds at Gold Dust's cellars in Malin, Oregon.
Time to unload the chipping potatoes!
Walker Brothers workers and equipment separate rocks, "culls" and dirt clods from chipping potatoes at Gold Dust Potatoes' storage facility.
Rocks and dirt clods are sorted from our chipping potatoes before going into storage.
Gold Dust and Walker Brothers employees sort chipping potatoes before they are stored in a cellar at Malin, OR.
From the Running Y Ranch into Cellar 2!

Here’s to a great harvest!

Filed Under: chipping potatoes, farm, Gold Dust Potato Processors, potato harvest, Running Y Ranch, walker brothers, wheat

Potato Harvest Ends

October 15, 2014 By Gold Dust Farms 1 Comment

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?

 

The "Elk Field" on the Running Y Ranch before a day of digging chipping potatoes begins.
Everything looks calm before the day’s spud harvest begins
Two spud trucks drive to the Elk Field to join the day's potato harvest on the Running Y Ranch near Klamath Falls, OR.
A few potato trucks are rushing in to join the fray
Walker Brothers' potato trucks park while waiting for potato harvest to begin on the Running Y Ranch.
It takes a lot of spud trucks to keep three potato bulkers going!
Three potato bulkers waitin in a chipping potato field at the Running Y Ranch.
Any time now, they’ll start digging potatoes
The remains of elk tracks in a chipping potato field on the Running Y Ranch.
Can you make out the elk tracks? Hence the name the “Elk Field”
Mark Smith and Bart Crawford checking the temperature of chipping potatoes before allowing the potato harvesters to start digging.
Before they can start digging, Mark and Bart check the temperature of 30 chipping potatoes
A potato bulker digging potatoes in the Elk Field on the Running Y Ranch.
Let the day’s digging commence!
A potato truck joins a bulker and 10-wheeler in a chipping potato field on the Running Y Ranch.
Another potato truck jumps in line to join the harvest
A potato harvester fills a potato bulk bed with chipping potatoes.
That spud truck is almost full!
A spud truck leaves a chipping potato field with its first load of the day.
There’s the first load from this field for the day
A potato truck drives a dirt road along the edge of a potato field on the Running Y Ranch.
This could almost be a scene from the Dukes of Hazzard!
Doug Lewis tarps a loaded potato truck before it leaves the Running Y Ranch.
Before heading to Malin, Doug tarps the load of chipping potatoes
A potato truck has its load of chipping potatoes unloaded into a storage cellar on Gold Dust Potatoes' Malin, OR campus.
Some of the loads are for storage . . .
A spud truck having its load of chipping potatoes offloaded into another truck for shipping to Gold Dust's customers.
. . . And some are for shipping to our customers
A potato truck is unloaded while another is filled with chipping potatoes at Gold Dust Potato Processors in Malin, Oregon.
Fill up that truck!
A spud truck filled with chipping potatoes is weighed at Gold Dust Potato Processors in Malin, Oregon.
Once filled, the truck’s load of chipping potatoes is weighed
A spud truck backs into Gold Dust's packing shed to unload its chipping potatoes for shipping.
The spud truck backs in to unload the chipping potatoes for shipping
Potato trucks follow harvesters in a field on the Running Y Ranch in the Klamath Basin.
And thus ends another chipping potato harvest

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.

Filed Under: chipping potatoes, farm, Gold Dust Potato Processors, Organic Potatoes, potato harvest, Running Y Ranch, walker brothers

It’s Harvest Time!

September 18, 2014 By Gold Dust Farms 3 Comments

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.

An organic wheat field on the Running Y Ranch near Klamath Falls, OR, needs to finish ripening.
A few test cuts have been done on this organic wheat field
Two combines harvest wheat in a field at the Running Y Ranch outside of Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Ohhhh, the Walker Brothers Claas Lexion is pulling ahead!
Walker Brothers' Claas Lexion 750 cutting a wheat field at the Running Y Ranch near Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Gotta’ love seeing a combine at work!
A grain harvester pours wheat into a grain cart on the Running Y Ranch.
Our combine filling one of our grain carts to the brim with wheat
A grain cart loads wheat into grain trucks on the Running Y Ranch, outside of Klamath Falls, Oregon.
And in turn, our grain carts fills our grain trucks!
An un-cut wheat field on the Running Y Ranch in Southern Oregon.
Next!

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.

An open row of chipping potatoes waiting to be harvested on the Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge lease lands.
Mmmm . . . chipping potatoes
A potato bulker harvests chipping potatoes and then loads them into a potato truck on the Tule Lake Wildlife Refuge near Tulelake, CA.
And that’s how you harvest chipping potatoes!
The Peninsula stands tall in the background while Walker Brothers harvest chipping potatoes near Tulelake, California.
The Tule Lake Wildlife Refuge lease lands are definitely a scenic place to grow potatoes
A potato trucks kicks up dust on a dirt road on the Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge near the Oregon-California border.
Go Spuds Go!
Chipping potatoes from the Tule Lake Wildlife Refuge leases are unloaded into a potato cellar at Gold Dust Potatoes, Malin, OR.
From field to storage
A photo showing a spud truck being unloaded and the equipment it takes to get the chipping potatoes into storage.
Another potato cellar is being filled with chippers from another field
Chipping potatoes are being sorted at Gold Dust Potatoes' Malin, OR, storage facility.
After being unloaded, the chipping potatoes are sorted
Chipping potatoes going into a storage cellar at Gold Dust Potato Processors' Malin, Oregon campus.
We won’t see these chipping potatoes again until they’re shipped

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!

A semi-truck with a refrigerated trailer waits to be filled at Gold Dust Potato Processors' packing shed.
It looks fairly calm outside our packing shed . . .
Chipping potatoes being unloaded from a potato truck into Gold Dust Potato Processors' packing shed in Malin, OR.
Field fresh chipping potatoes getting ready for shipping
Four women manually sort chipping potatoes in Gold Dust Potato Processors' Malin, Oregon packing shed.
After the Odenberg sorter, our ladies give the chipping potatoes a manual inspection
An employee pulls potatoes before they're sacked at Gold Dust Potato Processors in Malin, Oregon.
One last chance to grab any spuds our customers don’t want
Chipping potatoes are piled into a large tote before being loaded into a truck at Gold Dust's potato packing shed.
Now THAT is a big sack of spuds!
An employee loads chipping potatoes into a refrigerated trailer in Malin, Oregon.
As you can see, there’s a lot of chipping potatoes in that reefer

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

A hay squeeze and truck move wheat straw bails on the Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge.
You gotta’ move the straw before you can haul it
A fourth cutting of alfalfa hay waits to be cut and bailed in a hay field near Malin, OR.
That’s a good-lookin’ fourth cutting of alfalfa

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!

 

Hay squeezes from Klamath Basin farms are lined up for the hay squeeze competition for the 2014 Tulelake-Butte Valley Fair.
The competition is looking stiff
Toby Turner, Walker Brothers farm employee, is talking with a competitor at the Tulelake-Butte Valley Fair hay squeeze competition.
Toby is chatting up the competition
Toby Turner moves a unit of hay at the 2014 Tulelake Butte Valley Fair hay squeeze competition.
Go Toby Go!
Gold Dust Potato Processors and Walker Brothers farm sponsored a car in the 2014 Tulelake Butte Valley Fair demolition derby.
Ain’t that derby car a beauty?
Don Sconce sits in the driver's seat of a demolition derby car before the 2014 Tulelake Butte Valley Fair.
There’s Don’s game face
Tristen Wilson, TJ Chavez, John Walker, Emma Chavez, Don Sconce and Mark Smith pose with the Gold Dust demolition derby car at the 2014 Tulelake Butte Valley Fair.
Here’s Team Gold Dust! What a good lookin’ crew
Don Sconce drives the #19 derby car into the arena at the 2014 Tulelake Butte Valley Fair demolition derby.
A warrior enters the arena
A photo of Gold Dust car after the 2014 Tulelake-Butte Valley Fair demolition derby.
And this is what 4th place looks like. Good job, Don, Mark and Tristen!

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!

Filed Under: chipping potatoes, farm, Gold Dust Potato Processors, grain, Organic Potatoes, potato harvest, potato shipping, Running Y Ranch, walker brothers, wheat

Speaking Of The Potato Festival . . .

November 18, 2013 By Gold Dust Farms 1 Comment

The Gold Dust Potato Processors office staff posing on their Klamath Basin Potato Festival float before the parade begins.
The Gold Dust office staff is ready for the parade

The sun was out, the breeze was slight and the weather was warm. While spud trucks traveled from the yard to the fields and then to the cellars, in Merrill a parade was getting underway.  After all, it was the perfect Saturday for a parade, and a perfect day for the 76th Annual Klamath Basin Potato Festival.

Held every year in Merrill, the Spud Festival (as it’s called locally) hosts folks from all over to show their appreciation for all things potato and celebrate agriculture.  With booths, a potato feed, all sorts of events and the parade, there’s a little something for everyone the whole weekend.  This year, the festivities kicked off on Friday, October 18th and went through the weekend.  If you’ve been an avid follower of our farm blog, then you know how important the Gold Dust office staff takes the parade.  After missing last year’s parade, the office crew wasn’t going to skip this year as well.  The theme for the Potato Festival was “God made a farmer, farmer grows potatoes, potatoes support our community”, so the ladies decorated a float with golden potatoes and gold fringe and balloons while they and their children donned white T-shirts and angel wings.  Though Gold Dust hasn’t won an award for the office staff’s creativity yet, it’s still fun and a great way for our employees to get out in the community.

But this year was different.  Rumor had it that Gold Dust’s float actually did well this year!   How well?  We took first place in the Commercial Division and for Best Overall Use Of Theme we grabbed second.  Well done, office crew!

While it may appear our office staff had a whole lot of fun putting this float together, let’s not forget they made Gold Dust look good for the parade while still doing their everyday tasks.  And on top of it, they all got up early on Saturday to put the finishing touches on the float and to participate in the parade, not to mention get their kids around to help out too.  So ladies, thank you very much for your hard work on the float and congratulations on getting first place!

And before we wrap up this post, Gold Dust would like to thank the folks who put on the Potato Festival.  It takes a lot of hard work to put together an event like this, and it’s great to see people putting in the time to not only make it a fun event, but one that celebrates out local ag community and continues to grow.  Thank you.

The Gold Dust Potato Processors office staff decorating a float for the 76th Annual Klamath Basin Potato Festival.
Looks like Sarah’s taking one for the team!
The Gold Dust office staff and kids wait for the Potato Festival parade to begin in Merrill, Oregon.
It’s almost show time
The Gold Dust Potatoes office staff and children pose on their Klamath Basin Potato Festival float prior to the parade's start.
Now THAT is a Spud Festival float! Well done!

 

Filed Under: awards & recognition, gold dust office, Gold Dust Potato Processors, Klamath Basin Potato Festival, potato harvest

Chipping Potato Harvest Ends

October 20, 2012 By Gold Dust Farms Leave a Comment

A potato bulker in a Malin, Oregon field near Gold Dust's campus.
Quiet for now, this potato bulker is waiting to harvest another chipping potato field

Our potato fields are littered with the remnants of dead potato plants and chippers that didn’t make it through the bulker.  Tracks from our diggers and spud trucks have replaced the long rows of plants.  The bulkers and tractors are quiet, while the spud trucks have changed duties from hauling chipping potatoes from the fields to storage to hauling them from storage to the packing shed.

Potato harvest is over.

On Monday (October 15th), just before lunch, our last field was dug.  This year potato harvest lasted a little over a month, and considering the ground our harvest crews covered, it’s a pretty amazing feat.  We had spuds in fields we traditionally farm in the Leases as well as around Tulelake, Malin and Merrill.  However, this year we also farmed the Running Y Ranch, which didn’t add much to the acres we had to harvest, but it did add to the miles our equipment and crews had to cover.  And now that it’s all said and done, this year we had a beautiful crop with impressive yields.

So, how did we get through harvest so quickly?  To start with, we have a hard-working, experienced, dedicated crew who stepped up and put in the hours to make it happen.  From the guys on the bulkers to the folks in the spud trucks to everyone at the storage sheds, packing shed and in the office, every person worked hard to make potato harvest go as smoothly as possible.  We also had beautiful weather which allowed us to start on time every day and not wait for the day to warm up, or cool down, or the soil to dry out.  It’s been a beautiful fall for digging spuds!  Finally, we’ve been doing this for quite a while now.  Though every harvest is different and presents new challenges nobody could foresee, we’ve developed a knack for growing and harvesting chipping potatoes.

Before we get to some final pictures of potato harvest on the Running Y Ranch and around the Malin area, John, Bill, Weston and Tricia would like to thank the crews and staff for making this another successful potato harvest.  Everyone’s hard work is appreciated, and there is no crew around that’s better than the one that works for Gold Dust and Walker Brothers.  Thank you, everyone.  All of you helped make this a success.

Now, for some final potato harvest pictures!  And enjoy the Klamath Basin Potato Festival!

Potato field on the Running Y Ranch towards the end of August.
Towards the end of August, this potato field looks picture perfect
A potato truck meeting a potato bulker in spud field on Running Y Ranch
And the same field at the beginning of October – what a difference a month and a half makes!
A chipping potato field on the Running Y Ranch being harvested.
And here it is being harvested
A photo looking north of a chipping potato field on the Running Y Ranch.
This potato field is green and happy in August
A chipping potato field on the Running Y Ranch ready for October potato harvest.
And now it’s ready to be harvested in October
A full potato truck leaving a field on the Running Y Ranch.
A potato truck heads to the cellars from the Running Y
A potato bulker and spud truck harvesting chipping potatoes on the Running Y Ranch.
It’s not your imagination; this potato field is quite long
Two full potato trucks make their way out of a chipping potato field on the Running Y Ranch.
Many of our spud truck drivers are reformed drag racers. Just kidding, Mr. Insurance Agent!
A chipping potato in a spud field on the Running Y Ranch.
Now THAT is a beautiful chipping potato!
Two potato trucks are stopped to have their loads of potatoes tarped before entering the highway.
After the trucks leave the field, we tarp the load to keep the chipping potatoes in the trucks and other vehicles safe from flying spuds
A potato bulker works a Malin-area potato field with Mt. Shasta in the background.
Mt. Shasta, Old Glory and a potato bulker – what a beautiful sight!
It’s only 8 am and that potato field is pretty well harvested
A tractor and potato bulker in a potato field near Gold Dust's campus in Malin, OR.
By afternoon, the potatoes were dug and equipment was moving on
A potato bulker in a Malin, Oregon field near Gold Dust's campus.
Quiet for now, this potato bulker is waiting to harvest another chipping potato field
Trucks lined up at Gold Dust's packing shed in Malin, Oregon.
As you can see, the trucks are hauling the chipping potatoes to customers as fast as we can dig ’em
A chipping potato field being harvested just outside of Malin, Oregon.
Another beautiful day to harvest chipping potatoes!
Two potato trucks work with harvester to dig a chipping potato field.
And here’s one of the last potato fields we harvested
A potato truck leaves a potato field near the Gold Dust Potatoes campus in Malin, OR.
With the cellars just at the packing shed, this load of spuds doesn’t have to travel far

Filed Under: chipping potatoes, farm, Gold Dust Potato Processors, potato harvest, Running Y Ranch, walker brothers

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • Next Page »

From Our Farm Blog

  • Here You Go – Weston’s Organic Potato Chips!
  • We Need Some Elves!
  • Looking for a job?
  • Klamath Ag Leaders Meet with Secretary Bernhardt and Commissioner Burman
  • We Stand With Shut Down & Fed Up

We’re Hiring!

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

Crop Bookkeeper – We need help with bale counts and large sets of data. Sound like your kind of job?

Janitorial – Looking for a part-time job for evenings and weekends? We need your help!

Stay In Touch!

  • Keep up to date with Gold Dust Potatoes and Walker Farms' blog by subscribing to our feed, follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook or check out our YouTube Channel!

Visit Us On LinkedinVisit Us On FacebookCheck Our FeedVisit Us On Youtube

Copyright © 2021 ·Gold Dust Potato Processors & Walker Brothers | 30203 Micka Road, Malin, OR 97632 | (541) 723-2600 · Log in