JOHN WALKER, co-owner Walker Brothers, a Merrill-based family farm that grows chipping potatoes

The season’s lesson 

By LEE JUILLERAT 

H&N Regional Editor

December 19, 2010

   Walker is the co-owner of Walker Brothers Farms and Gold Dust Potato Processors, a Merrill-based family farm that grows chipping potatoes.

   He oversees farming and irrigation while his brother, Bill, handles sales. His nephew, Weston, is involved in planting and irrigating, and also is involved in sales to Asia. Bill’s oldest daughter, Tricia, works in the office.

   Because of water shortages, the Bureau of Reclamation last spring announced it would provide the Walkers and other Klamath Reclamation Project water users with only a third of their normal water supplies.

   That caused the Walkers to lease fields, mostly in the Yonna Valley, that could be irrigated with well water.

   “It’s not too bad,” Walker said of the past potato season. “We’re filling orders.”

   He was, however, disappointed in the quality of his potatoes.  

   Growing potatoes in areas where they’re normally not grown posed challenges, such as the logistics of moving workers, equipment and potatoes longer distances. There also were lower yields.

   In Yonna Valley, the harvest was about 400 sacks of potatoes per acre, 50 to 100 sacks below average yields in his usual fields that couldn’t be used.

   “I’d say the biggest lesson I learned is you probably shouldn’t grow potatoes where they don’t normally grow,” Walker said with a laugh.

   He stays upbeat because growing potatoes is his life.

   “You’ve got to be an optimist to do this,” Walker said. “It’s in my blood. I’m 58 years old. What am I going to do? Quit? It’s what we do. We gotta keep rolling. …. You do the best job you can. If you have to, like we did this year, you raise them in the wrong place and you do the best you can.”

   Walker said he has kept buyers informed of the water situation and its   resulting problems.

   Frito-Lay buys about 70 percent of Gold Dust’s potatoes for potato chips, while the rest are sold to other buyers in the U.S. and overseas in South Korea, Malaysia and other countries.

   He and Bill haven’t talked about this season’s problems or discussed contingency   plans if the Basin faces another water shortage in 2011.

   For now, Walker is hoping for lots of rain and snow.

   “I’m hoping to see about 15 feet of snow to put water in Upper Klamath Lake,” he said.

   What he doesn’t like seeing is water from Upper Klamath Lake being sent down the Klamath River. He believes federal agencies, including the Bureau of Reclamation, are ruled by liberal courts.

   “It’s very discouraging to see the judges are ruling the country instead of the people,” Walker said. “The ESA (Endangered Species Act) needs to be changed.”

   He sees some irony in concerns facing the city of Klamath Falls and other   Oregon cities about meeting clean water standards. He believes many people don’t realize or appreciate the enormity of federal and state regulations faced by farmers and others until it directly affects them, especially in the pocketbook.

   “It used to be it was just the farmers so that was OK,” he said. “Now it’s affecting people in the cities so it’s not OK.”

   He supports the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, noting this year’s shortages wouldn’t have been as impacting if the agreement had been in place.

   “No, it’s not a great thing, but it’s what we’ve got and it was hammered out by 26 different groups,” Walker said. “We didn’t all get everything we wanted, but everybody gets a piece of the pie.”  

Side Bars

TIM EVINGER, Klamath County sheriff