Sagola farm reaps second largest potato harvest.
By Jeni Jewell
Tuesday, October 06, 2009 at 4:37 p.m.
Read more: Local
SAGOLA -- One-hundred-twenty days after they were planted, it's time to harvest the potato field at Johnson's potato farm in Sagola.
Eleven million pounds of potatoes on 280 acres need to be harvested this fall. According to members of the family run farm, this year could be one of the best in years, second only to last year's record harvest.
"The quality is excellent," said fourth generation potato farmer, Dale Johnson. 'We may be a little bit smaller in size compared to last year, but last year was remarkable."
Johnson said the dry summer, matured the potatoes faster this year, and hardly any rain in September has put the farm ahead on their harvest schedule. They'll be done in three weeks instead of four.
Once all the potatoes are harvested, the work won't be over. For the next eight months, the potatoes need to be sorted and shipped, and that's a time intensive process.
"Every potato is seen by somebody's eyes," Johnson said, "going past them on a conveyor or grater, sorting them out. The biggest things as far as seed, is to get every rock out."
Only 30 percent of the potatoes will get bagged, shipped, and eaten. The rest will be used as seed for several Wisconsin farms.
As for the price of the potatoes, that won't be decided until mid-winter. But it's expected to go down since farmers nationwide are reporting good potato harvests.
