Gold Dust & Walker Farms

Looking Back at Harvest 2017

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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.

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!

 

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.

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.

The Chipping Potatoes Are (finally) In The Ground!

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View from a chipping potato field looking south towards Gold Dust Potato Processors' Malin, Oregon campus.
It’s a bit more peaceful after we’ve planted our chipping potatoes

Our busy season has gotten a little less busy.

Last week, on June 2nd, we wrapped up planting potatoes in a seed potato field down on the Oregon-California border near Worden. Slightly breezy and warm with a view of the Klamath Wildlife Refuge and the snowcapped Siskiyou Mountains to the south and rolling hills and Cascades to the North made for a serene ending to a challenging season.

Every potato planting season comes with its challenges, and this one was no different. The wet winter and spring were a blessing and a curse –a blessing for the much needed end to the drought we’ve been living with but a curse as it kept us from the fields for a while. Once we were able to get out to the fields to plant potatoes, modern technology’s gremlins decided to play a few tricks on our planters and tractors, slowing our planting crews to a crawl in the beginning. Despite that slow down, we chased them off and did what we do best – farm.

A tractor and potato planter are getting serviced in a chipping potato field near Malin, Oregon.
Few things are more frustrating than when technology halts planting potatoes

Like shipping potatoes to our customers, planting chipping potatoes takes more people and effort than a lot of folks realize. The story of planting season begins before the seed even hits our cellars,  up in the offices of Gold Dust’s Malin campus. In the months leading up before the seed arrives, our management team has to figure how many acres are going to be planted into chipping potatoes and which varieties we’re going to grow. After those decisions are hammered out, the potato seed has to be ordered and we have to plan for it to be stored once it arrives.

Since we’re in the heat of shipping season at this point, there’s a dance between emptying cellars and getting them cleaned and getting our customers’ orders through the packing shed. It takes an extraordinary amount of coordination and organization between the shed crews and the cellar crews, yet they manage to make sure we have room for the incoming potato seed while getting our customers’ orders out on time.

A Gold Dust employee unloads chipping potato seed from a refrigerated rail car into a potato truck in Malin, Oregon.
Chipping potato seed being unloaded from a refrigerated railroad car

While some of the potato seed we plant is grown right here in the Klamath Basin, much of it comes from out of state and arrives by truck and rail. For the seed that comes by train, we have crews at the rail yard in Malin unloading it from boxcars into spud trucks. The seed that comes in on trucks requires a slightly less handling but still quite a bit of coordination as, we mentioned, we’re still in the middle of shipping season and it takes people to get it unloaded. Regardless of how it gets to Malin, the seed still needs to get weighed before going into storage, which means our front office crew is watching the scale and creating weight tickets.

Walker Farms' seed crew cutting chipping potato seed in a cellar on Gold Dust Potato Processors' Malin, OR campus.
Our seed crew cutting potato seed in one of our cellars

So, when it’s time to plant potatoes, we just throw them in the planter and stick it in the ground, right? Nope. We set up a cellar to process and cut the seed, bark it (yes, with bark dust), which in and of itself takes a lot of hard-working people to make sure we’re putting high-quality product into the ground. After the potato seed is cut and barked, it goes back into storage for a few weeks until we’re ready to plant it.

A spud truck full of chipping potato seed being unloaded into a cellar on Gold Dust Potato Processors' Malin, Oregon campus.
Chipping potato seed being unloaded into a cellar

It may only take a few paragraphs to describe getting ready for planting season, but it takes months of hard work and organization to make sure when we’re finally able to plant potatoes, we’re ready to go. And when it’s go time, it’s another dance of equipment and crews. Just as our management team figures out which fields will be planted with which potato varieties, they also figure out when they’ll be planted. Back in the offices, the battle plan is sorted out, the bookkeeping team is tracking the seed as it leaves the cellars and the front office is back to tracking the weights of loaded spud trucks as the truck drivers head out to the fields.

Speaking of the fields, it too is more complicated than dragging our equipment out and putting seed in the ground. In most cases the field is transitioning from a cover crop or one of our rotational crops (as per our sustainable farming plan) to a potato field. This requires weeks of tilling and working the ground over so we can plant potatoes in them. Prepping the fields often starts while the end of winter is lurking about, which means being at the mercy of the weather for when we can get our tractors out into the fields and pray they don’t get stuck. And then once the fields are ready? We’re still watching the evening weather reports and tracking the storms and the sun to see when we can actually get the spuds in the ground.

A Walker Farms potato truck headed to a field with chipping potato seed near Malin, OR.
Now that the time is right, get that potato seed out in the field!

And when all the planning comes together, the coordinating of the various crews is worked out and the weather is just right, then – just then! – we’re able to plant our chipping potato crop for the upcoming year. And again, as with everything in agriculture, it takes more people than just the guys in the tractors to get the fields planted. We have our mechanics on hand fixing everything from pickups and spud trucks to the equipment. Our spud truck drivers are getting the potato seed to the planters and our agronomy team is checking the seed, ground and conditions as the fields are planted. Our management team is warily watching the process in the fields and from the offices to make sure everything is going as planned while our field crews are laying out pipe in the fields that have just been planted. Everyone is pulling together, diligently doing their job – regardless of how unrelated they seem to each other – to make sure the potatoes are planted.

In a few weeks after the potato seed is in the ground, we begin to see the fruit of all this organization, labor and worry as potato plants sprout from the ground. Because planting season is over doesn’t mean the worry and hard-work is over, it’s just a different season. Frost crews will be monitoring the bitter nights, preparing to turn on sprinklers to fight the cold. Our irrigation teams will be making sure the potatoes get the water they need while the agronomy team is watching the plants for signs of stress and pests. The marketing and sales team will be lining up customers’ orders while the management team is looking toward harvest and beyond.

When you consider all of the different people involved in planting a potato field and all of the different hats being worn it takes to make it happen, it’s really incredible. It also showcases the variety of jobs available on the modern farm – we need all of these people doing these different jobs well just to get a potato in the ground!

Thank you to our hard-working planting crews who gave up weekends and worked late into the nights to make sure the fields were planted this year. And thank you to everyone – from the shed and cellar crews to the office staff and truck drivers – for getting the potato crop in the ground. Your dedication is much appreciated.

And now, we can turn to planting grain and cutting hay!

16th Annual Open House Field Day

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A Lamoka potato plant flower in a field near Newell, CA.
It’s Gold Dust Potato Processors’ 16th Annual Open House Field Day!

Every August for the last 16 years we have opened our doors and our fields to guests from not only all over the United States, but as with this year, all over the world. While things were a bit different this year from last, some things didn’t change – gratitude for our customers and partners for helping Gold Dust and Walker Brothers become the outstanding businesses they are.

On August 16th, the busy day started at 7:30 in the morning with a hearty breakfast at Mike and Wanda’s restaurant in Tulelake, California (just over the border from Gold Dust’s Malin-area campus). While our guests sipped coffee and enjoyed eggs, bacon and sausage, biscuits and gravy, and french toast, CEO Bill Walker welcomed the guests and introduced Lexi Crawford, who organized the day’s events.  After reminding everyone about Gold Dust’s support of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Lexi introduced some of the folks who had traveled from far – Hyosang Park from Nong Shim (South Korea), Sunny Kang from IREH (South Korea), and Rob van Zadelhoff of RaboBank (the Netherlands via St. Louis, MO) as well as other important guests from much closer, such as Paul Sproule from North Dakota.

Following the introductions, Lexi then welcomed Rob van Zadelhoff to the front of the room. Mr. van Zadelhoff, CEO and President of RaboBank Agrifinance in St. Louis. With his roots in the Netherlands, Mr. van Zadelhoff talked to our audience about Brexit, the European markets and their effects on the States as well as the strength of the American agricultural market.  After he spoke, Tricia Hill introduced Dan Keppen from the Family Farm Alliance. Mr. Keppen has been involved in Klamath Basin water issues since 2001, and he updated the crowd with information on what’s happening on Capitol Hill as well as issues more specific to our locale.

After breakfast, everyone jumped in their rigs and headed to the fields. Instead of focusing solely on Walker Brothers’ fields, this year the field portion of the Open House Field Day included visits to two chipping potato fields just outside of Tulelake farmed by MD Huffman Farms and another farmed by the Staunton family. Both fields featured Lamoka potatoes, a variety, as Bill explained, is great for shipping and storage as well as for frying. The samples brought in from both fields showcased beautiful chippers, and, if the weather holds, will be dug in 30 days.

Following the fields visits, the group went to Gold Dust’s packing shed to see sample digs of all varieties, take a shed tour and see the latest piece of equipment from Mayo Mfg. As is tradition, in the shed each potato variety grown by Walker Brothers was laid on the floor in a triangle to show how each progressed throughout the growing season. On a table were samples of potatoes as well as how they fried up – including the famed Lamoka variety. Once the shed tour was complete and everyone was done checking out the Harriston Dirt Eliminator and Sizer, our guests hopped back into their cars and pickups to swing by a new farm Walker Brothers started farming on the way to Running Y.

At the Running Y, Bill and John along with agronomist Sachin Rawat showed off an organic chipping potato field. John discussed some of the differences in growing organic potatoes – including accepting weeds as a part of life – and remedies for other pests. Bill also fielded questions about the long-term market prospects of organic potatoes, which, looking at the current focus on organic crops in the marketplace, appears to be something people will be looking for many years to come.

After checking out an organic corn field being grown for silage for a local dairy, our guests enjoyed sandwiches in the shade of the trees at the Running Y Headquarters while a reporter from the Herald and News, Kevin Hume, interviewed Gold Dust’s partners and knowledgeable guests such as Duane “Sarge” Preston and Paul Sproule about the finer points of potato farming for his article “New potato variety highlight of field tour“.

It wouldn’t be an Open House Field Day without the golf scramble, and this year was no different. However, instead of hosting it the Running Y Resort as in the past, this year the golf tournament was held at Reame’s Golf & Country Club just outside of Klamath Falls. With a group photo and shots of Crown, our guests made their way to the course for a shotgun start to the tournament. Thirteen teams made up the field this year, and judging from the stories and the scores, it appeared everyone had a wonderful time.

As our guests made their way from the golf course to Reames’ ballroom, dinner was served. With the option of steak and chicken as well as an open bar, the conversation was lively. And of course, this was when we had to give out the awards for the golf tournament!

First Place Team: John Walker, Mike Henard, Duane “Sarge” Preston and Jared Marshall

Second Place Team: Weston Walker, Aaron Karp, Greg Addington and Charles McElligott

Last Place Team: Tricia Hill, Dianne Spires, Tammie Staunton and Suzi Frederickson

Women’s Longest Drive: Sunny Kang

Men’s Longest Drive: Matt Thompsom

Women’s KP: Dianne Spires

Men’s KP: Matt Huffman

Another tradition that has been taking place since 2013 was the fundraising held for Make-A-Wish. If you’ve visited this blog before, then you’re likely aware of Jan Walker and Katie Walker’s involvement in the local Make-A-Wish. For the last few years, there’s been a “Fireball Hole” dedicated to donations for Make-A-Wish, and at dinner Katie gives a presentation about some of the wishes that had been granted. Over the years our guests have generously opened their wallets and helped local kids get their wishes granted.

Back in 2013, we were thrilled that our guests along with Gold Dust raised $3,800.  2014 was even more exciting with $10,060 raised for area kids.  And we thought last year was even more incredible – $18,381 was raised between the Fireball Hole and the dinner presentation.  However, this year we broke another fundraising record for Make-A-Wish.  Between our guests and Gold Dust, $21,814 was pledged along with 150,000 airline miles!  We cannot thank our guests enough for their generosity in helping an organization that has become very important to Gold Dust.

While the evening was filled with laughter and happy conversation, one chapter came to a close. Duane “Sarge” Preston, mentor to the farm on all things potato, announced this was his last trip for the Open House Field Day. For nearly 20 years, Sarge has helped John, Weston and the farm crews get a better understanding of what it takes to grow a great potato. From looking at plants to getting rid of pests, Sarge and John spent a lot of time out in the fields, and through those years he developed friendships with the Walker family. We will all miss his visits, advice and warm personality at our annual event. We do hope he makes it west again for a few more rounds of Crown and laughs!

Bill Walker, Sarge Preston, Paul Sproule and John Walker at the Reames Golf and Country Club for Gold Dust Potatoes' 2016 Open House Field Day.
Sarge, thank you for everything!

And as Sarge says, “Enjoy a potato product every day!”

Gold Dust Potato Processors' guests gather at Reames Golf & Country Club in Klamath Falls for the 16th annual Open House Field Day golf tournament.
Thank you to everyone who made our 2016 Open House Field Day memorable!

We’d like to thank everyone who was able to make it to our annual Open House Field Day. It’s a long ways to travel for field tours and golf, but to all who make it out, thank you not only for coming, but for helping Walker Brothers and Gold Dust continue to grow and thrive.

Harvest Season Has Arrived!

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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.

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.

Here’s to a great harvest!

2016 Winter Wings Festival to Visit The Running Y Ranch!

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Members of the Klamath Basin Audubon Society visited Gold Dust's Running Y Ranch in preparation for a field trip for the 2016 Winter Wings Festival.
Members of the Klamath Basin Audubon Society visited the Running Y Ranch for next year’s Winter Wings Festival

If you’ve spent any time reading our blog or talking to our partners and employees, then you know how proud we are of the Running Y Ranch.  Not only does that farm have amazing soil, terrific water rights and produce some of the best crops in the Basin, but the amount of wildlife around those fields is outstanding.  Elk and deer graze our fields (and raid our hay sheds!), raptors glide through the skies above the ranch while ducks, geese and swans stop by on their migrations along the Pacific Flyway.  If you appreciate wildlife, then you can understand why we feel the Running Y is a more than just another farm to us.

With that in mind, our CEO and partner, Bill, wanted to reach out to the Winter Wings Festival and offer our fields for tours in 2016.  For those unfamiliar with the Winter Wings Festival, it’s a yearly event held by the Klamath Basin Audubon Society (KBAS) over President’s Day holiday weekend that brings birders from all over the world to the Basin to take birding tours, attend workshops about bird behavior and photography, and basically talk birds!  Considering the tundra swan migration is happening that time of year, it’s a great opportunity to show people how agriculture and wildlife can co-exist.

The offer was extended and Diana Samuels, one of the organizers for the Winter Wings Festival, suggested that in preparation for 2016 some members of the KBAS pay the Running Y Ranch a visit. On February 21st, Caleb Sundahl, Mihajlo Matic and Lexi Crawford met the local Audubon Society to take photos, watch birds, look at where to take their birders next year and talk logistics.  Though there was less snow than we’d like for this time of year, it was a beautiful day to watch the swans, answer questions about our farming practices and make plans for next year.

After KBAS’s visit with members of the Gold Dust crew, we’re looking forward to having the birders visit our fields for the 2016 Winter Wings Festival.  Thank you to the Klamath Basin Audubon Society for coming out and seeing what we can share with birders.  We’re looking forward to their tour next year!

 

By the way, before we wrap this up, the photos for this post were taken by Lexi and Bart Crawford’s son, Walker.  Thanks for the snaps, Walker!

Walker Crawford, 6, takes a picture of himself.
Thanks for the photos, Walker!

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!

Is It The Running Y Ranch Or Running Y Lake?

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A chipping potato field looks like a lake from early February moisture on the Running Y Ranch near Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Lake front property or the entrance to a chipping potato field?

Last fall doesn’t seem very far away. The fields at the Running Y Ranch were busy, full of equipment cutting hay and grain and getting the fields ready to dig potatoes.  Before long bulkers were filling spud trucks, which headed to Malin to store the potatoes for shipping season.  Occasionally, the ground would seem to open up to swallow a truck.  When that happened, you remembered these fields were once part of Klamath Lake.

We were recently reminded of that again.  On February 16th, Tricia called to say the fields were so full of water from much needed rain and snow that you couldn’t see where one field ended and another began.  Not only that, swans, snow geese and Canada geese had flocked to the fields, and in some places there were so many of the white birds it looked like the snow had returned.

By the time we made it to the Running Y Ranch the next day, some of the flooding had subsided and the massive flocks had moved on.  But what was left was still amazing.  If it weren’t for the built up roads that ran along the edges, the fields would have appeared to be one contiguous lake.  With swans and a few Canada geese swimming through the wheat and potato fields of last year, you could almost see how this area was once a seasonal part of Klamath Lake.  And you could also see how these fields became so fertile.

Moments like these remind us how lucky we are to live in the Klamath Basin.  Yes, there’s still a drought and we’re all praying for more snow to fall in the mountains and rain to fill our lakes and reservoirs.  But watching geese swim in these flooded fields and swans pick through the leavings of last year’s grain harvest help give us a moment’s respite of today’s worries and remind us of the power and majesty of Mother Nature.

We hope you enjoy the photos below, and if you’d like to see any of them enlarged, just click on the picture and a gallery will appear.

And let’s all hope for more water!

Organic Potatoes? Yeah, We Grow ‘Em

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A field of organic potatoes growing on the Running Y Ranch near Klamath Falls, OR.
Check out the purple blossoms on our organic potatoes!

If you’ve been to the grocery store lately, you’ve probably noticed the organic produce section has steadily been increasing its territory.  Consumers are becoming more concerned about what they eat, and more and more they’re dropping organic items in their grocery carts.  As farmers, we’ve noticed this trend for years, hence adding organic hay and grain fields to our crop portfolios.  However, we’ve never tried our hand at organic potatoes.

Until now.

This year we planted our first organic potato fields.  If you’ve checked out our site or read our blog, you know that we’ve been growing organic grain and alfalfa for some time now.  It takes years of planning to get fields ready for organic crops, making it an investment in time as much as it is money.  While we’ve had success with our organic crops, we’ve never tried our hand at organic potatoes.  But this year, down on the Running Y, we’ve planted two different organic potato crops – one red (Modoc) and one yellow (Yukon Gold).  You may have noticed something; neither of those varieties are chipping potatoes.

Why not organic chipping potatoes?  One reason is the current marketplace isn’t asking for them.  Most organic potato chips use non-chipping varieties, such as Russets.  With little want for organic chipping potatoes, and chipping potatoes being rather delicate, at this time we’re not growing any.  But you can bet if we have successful organic potato crops this year, you may find more of our potatoes in the organic section of grocery stores and in your favorite restaurants in coming years!

 

The Fields In July

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Chipping potatoes growing at the Walker Ranch outside of Merrill, Oregon.
The chipping potatoes at the home place look green and happy

The summer sun and the click-clacking of sprinklers in the fields make July one of the greenest months in the Klamath Basin – despite the lack of precipitation.  Thunder storms have threatened to drop rain, but in the end the clouds dissipate or head in a different direction.  However, as long as we can irrigate, and the temperatures stay in the sweet spot, our crops will continue to thrive.

With that said, we figured it was time to show how some of the fields have progressed.  As you may recall from a previous post “Chipping Potatoes And Grain Are In The Ground!“, we shared photos we took of our fields being planted in mid-May.  Since it’s been just shy of two months, it’s a good time to see how some of our fields are doing.  While it’s a bit early to say how the crops will turn out at harvest, things are looking pretty good!

We took photos of grain and chipping potato fields at the Running Y, an alfalfa field in Malin, a chipping potato field at our Malin potato processing plant as well as one of a grain field that was in chipping potatoes last year.  We also have some snaps of the big, dry-land organic grain field on the Lower Lake Wildlife Refuge as well as chipping potato fields at the home-place outside of Merrill.  These field photographs don’t tell the whole story, and represent a fraction of the acres we farm around the Klamath Basin, but should give you an idea of what we’re seeing.

Enjoy!

From Our Farm Blog

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