Getting ready: Preparing for next growing season requires looking at markets

QUINCY — Farming is one of those businesses that requires thinking ahead. 

Part of that is paying close and careful attention to markets.

Larry Schaapman raises a lot of different crops on his Quincy-area farm, including potatoes for process markets, which need potatoes suitable for foods like french fries and potato chips. The last couple years have been a challenge, Schaapman said, and 2025 doesn’t look much different.

“We plant as per the request of the processor,” Schaapman said. “We don’t know where that’s at yet this year.”

Processors and farmers enter into contract agreements that specify, among other things, the varieties to be grown, but those contracts are slow in coming this year, he said.

Patric Connelly also raised various crops, but mostly beans, while he was farming in the Quincy Valley. Farmers start thinking about next year right after harvest, sometimes while they’re still harvesting.

“You look at what markets are doing, what you can grow, what you can make money on,” Connelly said. “A lot of people have rotations – some crops, you don’t try and grow the same thing every year. Potato people, they try and grow on a four- or five-year rotation in their fields. And so they come up with other crops to (plant); they’ll put corn, they’ll put beans, they’ll put wheat.”

Laying out the year’s cultivation plan also requires a look back, at least for a farmer growing row crops like corn, potatoes and beans. Connelly said the rotation is crucial.

“We didn’t try to grow beans back-to-back in the same field. We have at times, but we didn’t like to. Because it’s not good for the crops,” he said. 

Beans need different herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers than potatoes, he said, and it’s different still for onions, wheat, alfalfa and hay. If the same crop is planted in a field year after year, the weeds and pests that attack it will start to develop resistance to the herbicides and pesticides, Connelly said.

Matt Harris, director of government affairs for the Washington State Potato Commission, said farmers have to determine if they have enough land to grow what they need and if they don’t, figure out where – and how much – to rent it. Irrigation and its cost is another factor that must be analyzed.

“You have to manage what your labor is going to be,” Harris said. “You have to understand what the market variability is. You have to give yourself some idea what your return is going to be. There’s a laundry list of things you really have to take into account.”

Schaapman said farmers have some options, citing corn for processing as an example. But too much corn also depresses the price for that, he said. Wheat is an option, but wheat prices are depressed too. Alfalfa and hay markets are relatively steady, he said.

“They’ve been pretty consistent,” he said.

Pacific Northwest farmers have a relatively small share of American production; the Midwest is the major producer for some commodities, Schaapman said. Good farming weather in the Midwest has a decisive effect on markets. 

As for the variety a farmer is planting in any given year, well, that’s always changing. Connelly said the varieties of beans that are being planted for harvest in 2025 are not the same as those he was growing 10 or possibly even five years ago.

“There are always people trying to improve on them or come up with new varieties that are drought-resistant, or (improve resistance) to different diseases and pests,” Connelly said. “You’re trying to stress yield, because you want something that yields really good.”

Improving disease, pest and weather resistance aren’t the only focuses of research. Jenny Durrin-Gentry, executive director of the Potato Variety Management Institute in Moscow, said farmers are looking for traits that make their potatoes more competitive.

Harris said competitiveness is a challenge, even in process markets. The U.S. exported about $1 billion in frozen french fries in 2024 but imported $2 billion, he said. 

The relative value of the Canadian and American dollars makes Canadian potatoes very attractive to processors, Schaapman said. American growers also face competition from Europe, Harris said, and India and China are making inroads in the U.S. market. 

“It’s changing the dynamic,” Harris said. 

Durrin-Gentry said researchers are looking for ways to meet those challenges. 

“Breeding efforts focus on market needs, whether it’s improved fry color for processing, better storability for fresh markets or specific disease resistance,” she wrote in response to a Basin Business Journal email.

The PVMI manages the Tri-State Breeding Program, a collaborative venture of Washington State University, Oregon State University and the University of Idaho. 

“While PVMI does not itself conduct research or breeding, we work closely with researchers, track new varieties and handle licensing and royalty collection,” she said. 

Corn, some potatoes and onions head straight for the processor, but onions and potatoes destined for the fresh market must be able to tolerate storage. Durrin-Gentry said the researchers working on potatoes are studying the whole production cycle, from planting to the final destination.

“Some research focuses on broad issues affecting all potatoes, like resistance to Verticillium wilt or late blight, while other research is market specific. For instance, breeders work on French fry varieties that require less sugar conversion in storage, which is important for processors.”

To stay in business farmers have to adapt to changes in the market, and Durrin-Gentry said research is a crucial component of adaptation.

“Research is the foundation of new variety development. Breeding programs focus on traits that farmers and processors need, such as improved disease and pest resistance, higher yields, better stability and enhanced processing qualities. For example, chip processors need potatoes that maintain a light color when fried, while fresh market growers may prioritize appearance, taste and storability,” she said.

When a crop is planted depends on the intended market. Connelly cited onions planted for seed. 

“(For onion seed) they’ll plant in the late fall or the late summer for the next year,” he said.

In fact, the Columbia Basin grows not only crops for the fresh market and for processing, but also for seed.

“There are a lot of different commodities grown around here. Seed crops that go all over the world, grass seed, corn seed, sugar beet seed, sunflowers – lots of things,” Connelly said.