Late in the season, temperatures can make or break potato harvest     

   Of the many aspects of farming out of John Walker’s control, the most detrimental is the most imminent: cold weather.

   It threatened his potatoes when they were first planted and now has the potential to ruin his entire crop at the cusp of harvest.

   “For people who live in Klamath Falls, (a cold day) is just another day,” said Walker, who co-owns Merrill-based Walker Brothers Farms and Gold Dust Potato Processors. “For us guys trying to get a crop out, it’s not like that.

   “I’m absolutely scared to death of the weather … Nobody knows what’s going to happen. The crop is way behind.”

   Walker estimates he is 10 to 14 days behind in the harvesting process. Delays in irrigation water delivery forced him to plant late in the growing season and in unfamiliar ground — 900 acres in the Poe and Yonna valleys and off Swan Lake Road.  

John Walker bought a new harvester that sorts potatoes from rocks to accommodate new, untried fields.

    Not only is the soil there rockier, which made planting so difficult the operation bought a new harvester that separates rocks from potatoes, but the fields are farther north, which means the temperatures are on average 5 degrees colder than in Klamath Falls, where recent lows have dipped to into the low 30s.

   In the last few weeks before harvest, potatoes need warm, dry weather.

   Cold weather can freeze them while they’re still in the ground. After the harvester pulls them up and they’re in the shed, they’ll gradually defrost and rot, Walker said.  

   Walker grows chipping potatoes that go to Frito Lay, In-N-Out Burger, and companies in the Philippines, Malaysia, and South Korea.

   “If I can’t fulfill contracts, they’ll shit can me and I’ll never have contracts again,” Walker said. “If you can’t sell the product, you can’t pay the bank back, you go broke, you’re done.”

   Walker has already incurred extra expenses this year. He moved his crops 25 miles away from the 6,500 acres his family has around Malin and Newell because of the water shortage.

   “We’re still burning tires off of pickups   ,” he said. “It’s ongoing. Once you get committed to a field, you have 10 employees going north every day, seven days a week.”

   The new land has potassium deficiencies that had to be offset with fertilizer.

   Walker hopes to start harvesting around Sept. 15, though the cold could force him to wait until Sept. 20, he said.

   “We’ve all seen it snow in late September. We’ve seen it rain for three days. We get an inch of rain, that puts me back another week,” Walker said. “This is very scary for everybody.”  

WESTON WALKER, field manager and international sales agent, Gold Dust Potato Processors and Walker Brothers Farms

     Weston Walker came from a farm family — his parents, Bill and Jan, are two owners of Gold Dust Potato Processors and Walker Brothers. He attended Oregon State University to learn agricultural business and crop soil science.

   But his schooling didn’t prepare him for a year like this one, where a water shortage forced the Walker Brothers operation to different fields with tough soil and uncooperative weather.

   “But you can’t let the tough times get you down,” Weston Walker said. “You’ve got to gather and keep on going. “This isn’t a job, it’s life.” Frosty nights were his primary concern when the potatoes were first planted, but now rocky soil is weighing on him. “When we planted, it was a fight,” he said. “We had to stop and straighten shanks.” Rocks in the soil damage potatoes when they tumble together as the harvester pulls them out of the ground.

   The farm recently bought a $100,000 high-tech harvester that pulls the potatoes out of the ground with suction. Since rocks are heavier than potatoes, they drop out of the suction and back to the ground so only the potatoes remain.

   “Now I’m mentally preparing for the battle,” he said. “We’re going into the fourth quarter, when we get to see what’s underground.”