SAN LUIS VALLEY, CO -- If the product-heavy market 1997 did nothing else for the potato industry, it spurred most grower/shippers, both veteran and new, into digging in with their bootheels and hanging on for the bumpy ride.
"It was a tough year for the first year of the shed, but we're happy where we're going," Ernie Myers of Mountain Valley Produce said of August, 1997. He went on to say that last season was actually "good, considering the price."
The company, packing out of its new 120- X 190-foot state-of-the-art computerized shed, expects to exceed its predicted 1.5 million cwt. Volume from Nov. 1, 1997 to Nov. 1, 1998. The last load of 1997's crop was shipped July 31, and new potatoes from 360 acres in Kansas were brought in for packing shortly after that.
Myers said the San Luis Valley acreage would be harvested beginning Sept. 7. "We'll be done with lettuce that week," he said of another major crop for the farm, which also produces alfalfa and wheat. In all, the operation has 4185 acres in the San Luis Valley, 1,350 of which are planted in Norkotahs, Nuggets and "a few Crestones." This season, he predicted, Mountain Valley will have "a real nice crop with good size." He said the Crestones are the first variety to go through the shed and size up really nice."
As it ended its first year of operation, Mountain Valley made some adjustments for the upcoming season, most notably in marketing. "For the most part it's done in-house," Myers said. Mike Mendenhall and Pam Dunning are handling sales, and Myers and his wife, Virginia, see to day-to-day operations.
The company is also making changes to its facility, adding another 200,000 square feet of storage and doubling the size of controlled atmosphere for potatoes. Its market, however, will remain much the same as they were for the inaugural year, with shipments going to the Southwest, Southeast and Midwest. Myers did note that the company "shipped more loads of mixers -- lettuce and potatoes -- than we anticipated.
Mountain Valley's potatoes are shipped under the "Willie Myers," "Yes," "Mountain Top" and "Billy Don" labels, with wholesalers and chains comprising the primary buyers. Myers had said in 1997 that the company was looking to establish a customer base and then hold steady, shipping good quality product 12 months. Of the advent of late blight to the San Luis Valley, Myers commented, "The valley needs to get on the same page and deal with it," adding that the utmost importance is bringing the blight under control and keeping it out of the 1999 crop.
From: The Produce News, Sept. 21, 1998, Vol. 101, no. 38, Special Section, page 35.