Miles Brothers Farms of Idaho utilized Farm Service Agency’s Farm Storage Facility Loan program to build an upgraded spud cellar.
By Chad Bybee, County Executive Director and Dana Rogge, FSA Public Affairs Specialist
Mashed, baked, scalloped or fried, the potato is one of America’s favorite side items. This hearty dish has delicate beginnings and it is the job of Miles Brothers’ farm of Grace, Idaho, to ensure the proper storage of their seed potatoes so these baby spuds can flourish into healthy plants.
David and Everett Miles are a part of a multi-generational seed potato farm located in the Gem Valley of southeastern Idaho. The Miles Brothers raise three varieties of seed potatoes – Sheopody, Russett Burbank and Ranger Russett –which are shipped to commercial growers in Washington, Oregon, and across southern Idaho.
Seed potatoes require proper storage with temperature and humidity control to preserve quality and prevent sprouting. The Miles brothers will start harvesting the seed potatoes in mid-September. When the seed potatoes come out of the field, the Miles brothers have to make the seedlings go dormant, a process they describe as ‘putting them to sleep,’ until the spuds are ready for planting the end of February or early March.
“You can’t fool potatoes, they are spot on,” said David Miles. “When it warms up, they’ll grow. The challenge is keeping them from the ‘yo-yo effect’. If you have fluctuation up, they’ll break dormancy, and you’ll have problems.”
The Miles brothers had older spud cellars used for storage, but they were unable to pile the seed potatoes too high or wide due to the lack of a good air system. These older facilities made it difficult to keep a consistent temperature. In order to better manage their temperature and humidity challenges, the Miles brothers saw the benefit of building an upgraded spud cellar using Farm Service Agency’s (FSA) Farm Storage Facility Loan (FSFL) program.
Idaho seed potato grower David Miles inspects his stored seed potatoes. The new spud cellar has the capacity to hold 60,000, 100-pound sacks of seed potatoes.
The FSFL program provides low-interest financing for producers to build or upgrade facilities to store eligible commodities. Qualified facilities include grain bins, hay barns and cold storage facilities, and loans can be used to purchase portable (new or used) structures, equipment and storage and handling trucks.
The new spud cellar can store up to 60,000, 100-pound sacks of seed potatoes. The new storage facility has helped the Miles brothers ensure optimum ventilation and climate conditions for their seed potato crop. David Miles said the quality of product they are able to achieve through their new spud cellar makes it a worthwhile investment.
“They [seed potatoes] come out of storage just like they went in,” Miles said. “I don’t think we have any shrinkage these days.”
For more information about FSA’s Farm Storage Facility Loan program, contact your local FSA office, or visit www.fsa.usda.gov. To find your local FSA office, visit http://offices.usda.gov.
