Raising Spuds and Cattle

“I like them baked, mashed, scalloped, french fries boiled.” Randy and Susan Brown grow the famous Idaho potato on 150 acres of good soil in Plano, Idaho. This year they grew early Norkotah variety spuds and Randy likes what he sees in the 2015 harvest. “What I’ve heard about the potato crop is that it is pretty good, better than average yields and size wise. Last year, generally the crop was small. I had a large crop last year. Size profile was really good in this year I have a good size profile. Not quite as large as last year but very marketable and it makes the warehouse run efficiently. That is because you have some of all sizes. Last year I had about 90,000 sacks on 165 acres and this year our acreages down a little bit. I will probably have 75,000 to 80,000 sacks on 150 acres.” With the 2015 crop now in the cellar, the Browns are preparing for the next crop. “We have already fumigated ground for growing potatoes next year. Even though you’re still working on this year’s crop, you do things to prepare for next year’s potato crop.” The Browns also raise cattle. Historically potatoes and cattle have fast changing markets. But farmer, rancher Randy Brown says when one is at a low price, the other makes up the difference. "Sometimes one is better than the other hand cattle have been really high until the last few weeks. Now they have taken a nosedive. Potatoes have been more less just a break even for me the last three or four years and cattle have been nice to balance the books with cattle a little above average and potatoes maybe a little lower than what you would like to but between the two of them I can make ends meet”. The Idaho potato harvest is about 75% complete as of now.