Time to Shine at 63rd Annual Meeting

Wisconsin Potato Coalition, State Farm and researcher reports take center stage

The Wisconsin Seed Potato Improvement Association (WSPIA) shared its program with invited guests during the 63rd Annual Meeting, February 1, 2023, at North Star Lanes in Antigo.

The schedule was full, including Wisconsin Seed Potato Certification Program (WSPCP) reports, a State Farm update, guest researcher spots, the WSPIA Annual Business Meeting and Board elections, refreshments, and dinner.

Roy Gallenberg, out-going president of the WSPIA Board of Directors, welcomed guests, saying that it has been nice for him personally to get to know the seed growers in Antigo better during his time serving on the Board.

Brooke Babler, certification and diagnostic manager of the WSPCP, gave winter potato grow-out results for Hawaii. Five hundred and seventy lots were entered into the winter grow-out program for certification at

Twin Bridge Farms in Hawaii.

“This is the first year we’re back to complete winter grow-out after two years of incomplete trials,” she noted.

Cole Lubinski, WSPCP plant disease specialist, added, “Planting conditions were great, sunny and warm, we got water to the seed right away, we had zero problems with one large rain event, crop growth was perfect, size was good, conditions were great, and dormancy was awesome.”

Amanda Gevens, chair, professor and Extension specialist, University of Wisconsin (UW)-Madison Department of Plant Pathology, discussed potato wart in Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada, explaining what symptoms look like, diagnostic tests, and amendments to importation requirements of potato.

PEI cannot export seed potatoes to the United States but can ship some potatoes with oversight to make sure tubers aren’t carrying pathogens. The potato wart pathogen is not known to be in the continental United States.

Wisconsin Potato Coalition

Mike Baginski of Baginski Farms, Antigo, gave an overview of the newly formed Wisconsin Potato Coalition.

“About a year ago, a group of growers and the UW came together to put forth a plan to keep the State Farm viable and moving forward,” Baginski said. “Growers include Schroeder Bros. Farms, J.W. Mattek & Sons,

Eagle

Farms.”

“It’s a good group of team members who put a lot of time and money together,” Baginski stated. “Wisconsin is one of the only states that has an elite farm for early generation seed.”

Baginski also introduced the new farm manager, Cody Bandoch, who has experience working at Frito-Lay, and assistant farm manager, Matt Young, a Fox Valley Tech Institute graduate.

Guest speakers included Ophelia Tsai, UW Department of Horticulture, who gave a presentation on “Evaluating Seed Potato Yield as Influenced by In-Season Split Application of Nitrogen,” and Shane Hansen, a graduate research assistant and Ph.D. student who talked about “Exploring Ultraviolet Light as a Control for Oomycete Storage Diseases.”

New Langlade Agricultural Research Station Manager Niles Franc gave an update on work he and his crew have been conducting in seed certification and integrated pest management since he took the position in June 2022.

Kevin Gallenberg of VAS/AgSource Laboratories provided a trial update on managing lime in potato production to reduce scab.

In his Annual Report, Wisconsin Potato & Vegetable Growers Association Executive Director Tamas Houlihan said 2022 was another good year for the Wisconsin potato industry, and that he could sum it up in four words, “Late start, great finish.”

Full Spud Ahead

“The number one item sold in grocery stores is potatoes, the number one side dish in restaurants is French fries, and the number one snack item in the U.S. is potato chips, so we’re strong. The Wisconsin potato industry continues to move full spud ahead,” Houlihan remarked.

The WSPIA Board held its annual business meeting, including election of officers and one new board member, Clover Spacek of Eagle River Seed Farm, and the presentation of a nice plaque to out-going board president, Roy Gallenberg, in appreciation for his service.

In turn, Roy presented Brooke Babler with the Wisconsin Seed Potato Industry Leadership Award for outstanding service as an asset to the WSPIA and her work with the State Farm and WSPCP.

“This is really a group effort from the whole program, the employees we have within the program and their devotion. They’ve been phenomenal and really stepped up,” Babler said.

63rd Annual Seed Meeting Sponsors

GOLDRUSH SPONSORS

AgCountry Farm Credit Services

CoVantage Credit Union

Insight FS

Nutrien Ag Solutions-Great Lakes

Oro Agri, Inc.

Sand County Equipment

Swiderski Equipment, Inc.

Syngenta Crop Protection

Volm Companies

SILVERTON SPONSORS

AMVAC

Bio-Gro, Inc.

Nicolet National Bank

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company

Riesterer & Schnell, Inc.

Roberts Irrigation Company, Inc.

Southside Tire Co., Inc.

TH Agri-Chemicals, Inc.

T.I.P., Inc. / AgGrow Solutions

SUPERIOR SPONSORS

AgSource Laboratories

BASF

Big Iron Equipment, Inc.

BMO Harris Bank

Chase Bank

Jay-Mar, Inc.

Kretz Truck Brokerage LLC

Nelson’s Vegetable Storage Systems

Quinlan’s Equipment, Inc.

Rural Mutual Insurance Co.-Antigo

Warner & Warner, Inc.

Matt Mattek of J.W. Mattek & Sons, Antigo, was elected WSPIA Board of Directors president for 2023, succeeding Gallenberg of Gallenberg Farms, Inc., Bryant.

Jeff Suchon of Bushman’s Riverside Ranch, Inc., Crivitz, was elected vice president, and Spacek was elected secretary/treasurer.

In addition to the three officers, the other two WSPIA Board Directors are Charlie Husnick, Baginski Farms,

Antigo, and Andy Schroeder of Schroeder Bros. Farms, Antigo. Suchon took the stage for some final words, saying, “I went to Hawaii and got to watch Cole and Dianna [Kessler] inspect potatoes. It’s humbling, not lavish. They do their things out there. I also inspected the greenhouses up in Rhinelander, and they were beautiful. I’m excited about what the Seed Farm has to offer.”

Ethiopian Families Depend on the Potato for Food

Potatoes produce more food per square meter than any other crop these small farmers can grow

By Charles Higgins, Ethiopian Sustainable Food Project Fund, Norika America, and Higgins Farms

The potato impacts every country. My friend, Sigrid Hanson, died of liver failure recently. He helped me on the Ethiopian potato project.

Sig was raised on a farm in Onalaska,

Wisconsin. Like most Wisconsin-bred citizens, he came home each year for deer season. He worked for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Ethiopia during his career.

He lived with his wife, Yemi Sebsibe, in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. Sig specifically aided in the Ethiopian Sustainable Food Project. Sig is pictured in the picture leading off this story with Ermias Abate at a potato market located at an elevation of 12,000 feet in the Ethiopian mountains.

Can you imagine feeding your family on a five-acre farm? Eighty thousand small farm families depend upon potatoes for food in the Amhara area of Ethiopia.

Potatoes produce more food per square meter than any other crop

Top

Top these small farmers can grow. The new disease-resistant varieties produce 250% more potatoes than standard varieties, or 350 cwt. (hundredweight)/acre versus 140 cwt./acre.

Fifteen years ago, no seed of these disease-resistant varieties was available in the Amhara area. Now, the Ethiopian Sustainable Food Project is providing 60,000 plantlets of the new disease-resistant varieties to local farmers each year. Also, this project helps produce 430,000 mini-tubers of diseaseresistant varieties and provides 16 tons of seed potatoes to small farmers each year.

Farmers pay back 10% of their seed production. Eight screen houses are produced each year so farmers can increase their own seed potatoes. Nine seed potato storages are built each year by this project, with farmers providing the wood for the frames of the storages as well as the labor.

Seed Potato Production

Seven workshops are conducted every year to train farmers in seed potato production and disease management.

The recipients of the early generation seed potatoes have increased their income from about $35 to $4,000 U.S. dollars per year by selling the seed potatoes. Thus, the demand for more seed potatoes of these diseaseresistant varieties is enormous.

Food Science is conducting five workshops on preserving excess potatoes for about 1,000 farm women each year, and over 100 kg. (kilograms) of potatoes per family a year.

Five solar dehydrators are being distributed to farm coops each year. Costs have risen quickly.

Potato flour made in the dehydrators is starting to be used in bread production, and other uses of potatoes are quickly expanding each year because of the world shortage of wheat. The war in

Ukraine has a wide impact.

Workshops demonstrate to about 1,000 farm women each year the use of potatoes and oats to reduce weight loss of weaning-age children. The Community Foundation of Central Wisconsin provides certified auditing of the donations, distributions, and tax-free status for the Ethiopian Sustainable Food Project under U.S. law. Donations are tax deductible.

For more information, contact the Ethiopian Sustainable Food Project Fund, c/o Community Foundation of Central Wisconsin, 2801 Hoover Road, Unit 1B, Stevens Point, WI 54481, 715-342-4454, info@cfcwi. org, https://www.cfcwi.org.