Potato harvest to begin day after festival with several concerns
by Peter Jakey, Managing Editor
While many people enjoyed the Labor Day holiday, summer?s unofficial last day, the Styma farming complex north of Posen was a buzz of activity with only a week left before the start of the harvest. Randy Styma worked from 6:30 a.m. to 8:45 p.m. and said he quit work early on Labor Day. ?I wanted to see my kids before they went to bed for their first day of school,? said Styma. Those in the farming community don?t enjoy holidays and vacations like most folks, especially this year.
An unusual amount of summer rain and concerns of a late blight have put the Styma operation 10 days to two weeks behind schedule. Usually at this time on the calendar, as people are kicking up their heels at the polka pavilion, the trucks and harvesters are already in the fields. Instead, equipment was being readied for the grueling pace of 12 to 13 hour days for five to six weeks straight.
THE MAIN reason the Stymas, as well as other Presque Isle County farming operations are behind is because of the excessively wet and mild summer. ?We have a substantial amount of damage north of the farm,? said Styma, where 15 inches of rain is believed to have soaked the ground. ?Right here at the farm, we are right at that 12 to 15 inch range,? said Styma, speaking from the empty storage facility near M-65. ?Fortunately, to the south, our fields had 10 to 11 inches, so we only have minor damage.?
Styma said 30 to 50 percent of the crops in northern fields appear to be damaged, while 10 to 15 percent losses are expected closer to the Styma complex. ?We needed this dry weather,? said Styma of the week-and-a-half of sunny, dry conditions. ?ANOTHER THING that has been worrisome has been late blight that has been really prevalent in the United States. We haven?t identified any up here yet.? This late blight strand is believed to have spread from tomato plants delivered from Louisiana to the East Coast. Another form of late blight that is a cause of concern kills plants slowly but can infect the tubers in the ground.
This has put the Stymas in a tough position because the potatoes are not mature enough to bring up, but how long can they stay out of harm?s way in the fields. ?Given the fact that there is late blight in the area, you don?t want to touch them until that skin is nice and tight on them,? said Styma. ?Potato blight was a serious issue for many potato farmers and home gardeners in and around Posen and Rogers City this year,? said John Pullis, Presque Isle and Montmorency Counties agriculture and natural resources educator. ?The periods of heavy rainfall and standing wat
THE STYMA family consists of Erwin Sr. and wife Yvonne, Erwin Jr., Randy, Bill and his son Andy. Erwin Sr. and Yvonne are retired but still remain active. They planted 712 acres of potatoes, 600 acres of alfalfa, 700 acres of oats and 240 acres of wheat. Styma said the potatoes traditionally have all been pulled from the ground by October 15 and 20, but the damaged crops and the late start will prolong the operation this fall — and then frost becomes another concern.
?Some years you can go until deer season and that would be great this year. We may need that time, because any questionable product in the fields, we are going to leave it. At the end we?ll access if there is anything left to recover,? said Styma. During the harvest, the Stymas employ 30 full time workers. That tapers off to 12 to 14 at the packaging plant. That operation continues until July of the following year. When the product has all been shipped out, there is an eight-week period where equipment is gone through and fixed, then the harvest begins again in earnest.