Spud specialist | A Blaine farmer takes the state's top potato award in stride
Photo/Becky Shea
Gregg Garrison, Maine's young potato farmer of the year
At 43, Gregg Garrison is amused that he’s been targeted as a young and up-and-coming potato farmer.
“The new young is 40,” he says, after giving a small chuckle when asked his age. “I probably don’t look the part.”
The Maine Potato Board at the end of 2009 selected Garrison as young farmer of the year after being impressed by how he ran his family’s operation, according to Tim Hobbs of the Maine Potato Board. Not that Garrison calls attention to him or his farm’s success, Hobbs adds.
“When we select the young farmer, we select someone who’s a leader and stands out,” Hobbs says. “One of the things about potato farmers in Maine, they’re humble, sometimes they feel awkward, but don’t let them fool you.”
In mid-February, the board will send Garrison to Michigan for a farm tour and then to Washington, D.C., for a leadership conference where he will meet the Secretary of Agriculture and some of Maine’s congressional delegation.
Hobbs says the award is a way to strengthen the potato industry in Maine. “We’re constantly looking to get growers involved in their industry,” he says. “It’s one thing to have a potato board and [to] work on issues, but without input from growers, it’s just our opinion. We rely on growers to guide the industry to where it needs to go.”
Plus, age is not really a factor when it comes to selecting the most distinguished young farmer of the year. “It’s a generational thing,” Hobbs explains. “[Garrison] farms with his dad. We call it the young farmer award because it’s the generation that will be taking over.”
With his father, Wayne, Garrison owns 1,200 acres of potato fields from Bridgewater to Fort Fairfield. His father started the farm, now called Double G for father and son, in 1965. Since partnering with Gregg in 1988, the farm has grown from about 300 acres to its present size.
The aim was to acquire land to take better care of it, while still maintaining certain sales figures. Presently the Garrisons can afford to leave one-half of their fields in grains or cover crops for two years to replenish the soil.
“My father taught me to take care of the land,” Garrison says. “He was taught that from his own experience, and it cost him yield, so he always told me, if we don’t take care of the land properly, we won’t farm.”
Rotating crops in this way has increased the yield by roughly 10% annually, Garrison says. In 2009, they sold 20 million pounds of potatoes for $1.7 million.
The Maine Potato Board also commended Garrison for his adoption of technology. His farm uses a GPS system to ensure the even application of fertilizer and lime, thus reducing loss while guaranteeing every potato is treated. And Garrison was one of the first Maine farmers in 1999 to build a storehouse with a ventilated system that automatically regulates humidity levels.
Garrison, who lives in Blaine, has four children with his wife, Heidi, who’s a preschool teacher. He says he’d love it if his children grew up and chose to farm with him, but he’s not pressuring them. Yet all around him, he sees potato farmers aging, with fewer young farmers lining up to follow them.
Maine has 380 growers that farm 55,000 acres of potatoes, according to the potato board. And though the number of acres is not declining, the number of growers is.
“The industry itself can’t get any smaller,” Garrison says. “We’ll lose equipment dealers if there’s not enough of us to buy their product.”
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