ROYALTON, Minn. — When potato harvest starts across R.D. Offutt’s potato fields in central Minnesota, it’s usually a sprint of long days to get the crop dug and stored by the first week of October.
But 2024 will go down as the first year where above average heat is slowing the process to more of a marathon, according to RDO regional farm manager Charlie Wachlin, who has played a part in 26 years of potato growing in the region.
“First time in our history we never had a full day of harvest throughout the month of September,” Wachlin said.
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Extended days in the upper 70s and 80s may have helped along many crops to finish out, but potato farmers need to keep the potatoes coming out of the ground cool enough to safely store them.
While visiting the potato storage plant near Royalton, Wachlin explained that they need to carefully watch the temperatures of the spuds coming in off the trucks. If temps are inching toward 65 degrees, they need to shut down harvest for the day, or risk spoilage. Warm potatoes that are piled high will not store, so the crews, which are largely seasonal workers, have to pause and wait for temperatures to drop before they can start again. That happened every day of harvest in September.
“It made it challenging. It really drug out our harvest,” Wachlin said. “We would have liked to get done sooner.”
Oct. 5 was a target end date, but with that surpassed, they are feverishly working during the cool parts of the days to finish. On Oct. 9, Wachlin expected they would have to pause again as temperatures were expected to reach about 75 degrees. It was expected to reach over 85 degrees on Thursday before starting a cooling trend.
Harvest was about 90% complete in Minnesota and 95% complete in North Dakota for RDO crews on Wednesday. Wachlin on Wednesday believed they should finish the harvest later in the week — just in time for temperatures to start to plummet. The USDA’s crop progress report released Monday, Oct. 7, listed potato harvest at 77% complete in Minnesota and 78% complete in North Dakota. That was behind an average of about 85% complete.
Once in storage, many potatoes need to keep through the following summer. They are kept at temperatures of around 46 degrees.
While dealing with excessive water made it difficult for applying herbicides and fungicides when they would like, the water allowed them to trim their water usage this year as the fields are all under irrigation.
Michael Johnson / Agweek
“Way down — 20-40% of our allotment is basically where we were at this year,” Wachlin said.
He said while the crop may be a little smaller, it’s an average crop. He attributes that to the heavy rains and limited sun and heat earlier in the year. Like other crops in the Midwest, variability is the best word to describe what the crop looks like in areas from Park Rapids, Wadena, Perham, Royalton and all the way to Lisbon, North Dakota.
Michael Johnson is the news editor for Agweek. He lives in rural Deer Creek, Minn., where he is starting to homestead with his two children and wife.
You can reach Michael at [email protected] or 218-640-2312.