employees during planting season and 20 to 25 part-time employees at harvest time. we start planting usually between the
10th and 15th of april and typically start harvest the last week in July. because of the sandy nature of the soil here, we plant a cover crop on everything that doesn’t have sufficient cover after harvest. we typically deep-rip the potato fields the fall before planting to eliminate any compaction problems, and we fumigate
“In general, we don’t ship internationally, but I think you are going to see the Wisconsin shippers work more aggressively going into Canada and Mexico.”
fields that have sufficient early dying pressure. we experimented with zone fumigation over the past several years and have found pretty good success with some varieties. GPs steering systems are used for all
field operations, except general tillage and harvest, and we have been happy with the trimble equipment we use for that. For planting and harvest, we have large Gallenberg self-propelled equipment that maximizes our labor efficiency and minimizes our down time. we have a 12-row planter, an
eight-row windrower and a four-row harvester. the planter and windrower share the same power unit, a design that Gallenberg developed before dissolving about 10 years ago, and one that we’ve been very happy with. we get most of our seed from wisconsin growers, though we’ve had to use some montana seed for burbanks, as wisconsin acres of that variety have decreased in recent years.
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