When many people think of potatoes, they think of Idaho, but potatoes are grown right here in Wisconsin. Located in Plover, Wis., Okray Family Farms has been growing potatoes since 1905. They take pride in their long-standing Wisconsin roots and dedication to sustainability. Alex Okray is proud to be a part of the fourth-generation family potato farm.
Okray Family Farms grows, packages, markets and sells onsite. This makes them unique as they can control all aspects of their product in the supply chain. They sell potatoes as fresh produce to companies like Kwik Trip and grocery stores. Okray also sells to brokers everywhere east of the Mississippi. Along with potatoes, Okray grows corn, beans and peas for canning companies.
How do potatoes get to the store?
After potatoes are grown in the field at Okray, they are sent to their processing facility. When the potatoes arrive, they are unloaded from trucks and washed.
They are then put on the grading tables. Okray Farms has a machine that scans the potatoes with a purple light and takes pictures of each potato. The system identifies and removes those that are misshapen, rotten or bruised. These potatoes are sold to another facility to be repurposed for chopped or frozen potatoes and dog food.
After the potatoes have been through the automated system, they are then sent to the hand-graded table. Employees evaluate the potatoes to find any additional flaws that the machine may have missed.
The potatoes are then sized and put into packages. Once packaged, they are put into a dark room set at 50° F. After the potatoes are stored, they are bought and sent to grocery stores across the country for all to enjoy.
What technology do potato farmers use?
Farmers use multiple types of precision agriculture tools to grow sustainable and healthy food.
Okray Family Farms uses an irrigation system that provides potatoes access to water when water is not consistently available. Potatoes require half an inch of water each day to flourish. Okray maps out their soil in their current fields to determine how much water each part will need.
Thanks to precision agriculture, the irrigation systems know how much water to apply to each field based on how much water the soil can hold. The system pivots its way around the field to increase or decrease the amount of water applied. This high-technology practice ensures that water is not overapplied.
How do Wisconsin potato farmers make food safe?
Wisconsin farmers are passionate about making safe food. For Okray Family Farms, this comes in the form of farm management and tracking systems.
For many consumers, the use of pesticides can sound scary. However, farmers would never put harmful materials in the crops. Farmers face a challenge in growing the best and healthiest crops. This can become difficult when insects invade. Pesticide use ensures that the crops can remain safe and plentiful.
“Everything we use we use based on [Environmental Protection Agency] labels. We are not doing anything that is dangerous for the consumer. We go through a food safety audit every year,” Alex said. “We have an outside agency come in and check our chemical application records and make sure we are doing everything by the book. Everything that is going into the stores is healthy and safe to eat. It always is.”
Another way farmers ensure safe practices on their farm is by using a system to trace their food. Since Okray Farms is involved with all aspects of the supply chain, they are in charge of labeling and packaging their potatoes.
On each bag of potatoes, there is a code that tells the customer where it was packaged.
“The code tells you the date it was packaged and field it came from,” Alex said. “Based off of the field we can determine when certain chemicals were applied, when the field was harvested, and can go all the way back to the seed that was used.”
If there were to ever be something wrong with the product, grocery stores can look at the code and trace it back to the farm. They can then check the management practices used to determine the problem and inform the proper channels.
These practices ensure customers are getting the healthiest and safest food possible.
Are Wisconsin potato farmers sustainable?
Sustainability is one of the most important aspects of farming. For Okray, this comes in the form of taking care of the land. They farm nearly 8,000 acres and use a four-year crop rotation on the land.
Each year, they grow potatoes in a different field to restore the soil’s nutrients. This allows them to grow corn, beans, and peas, and also allows the land to regenerate after growing potatoes.
“For us in means taking care of the land so we can one keep using it to be successful and make a profit,” Alex said. “As owners we also feel responsible for taking care of it and making sure we don’t deplete resources.”
Alex takes pride in being a steward of the land.
“As owners of the land, we feel responsible for taking care of it. That mindset is something that carries through all growers. Every grower I have met with is the same way,” Alex said. “We want to take care of the land and make sure we are responsible.”
Okray Family Farms is featured as a part of Gather Wisconsin’s Leaders of the Land® segment, which features Wisconsin farmers moving agriculture forward through their commitment to sustainability.