News

A good year for the potatoes

A central Illinois potato grower says it’s been a good year.

Kelsey Bess manages Neumiller-Sproule Farms, which grows over 1,000 acres of potatoes on the sandy, irrigated soils of Mason County.

“We had a lot of rain up front during the planting season, which helped get our crop emerged and get that canopy to smother out the weed pressure.”  She says, “They require a lot of water, much more than your corn or soybean crop.”

She tells Brownfield the harvest is underway.

“That’s for the chip potatoes, which go to Frito-Lay and to the Kettle plants.”  She says, “We could go through September for our chip potatoes, and then we also grow for Reser’s Fine Foods in Topeka, KS.  Those potatoes could get shipped through October.”

Bess says the spuds also end up in a variety of products produced in states like Wisconsin, Arkansas, Ohio, Indiana, and Tennessee.

AUDIO: Kelsey Bess – Neumiller-Sproule Farms