Andrew Cummings cijeli svoj život uzgaja krompir, ali ne obrađuje istu zemlju kao njegovi roditelji.
Decenijama je porodica pete generacije farmera Andrewa Cummingsa obrađivala zemlju na svojoj zemlji porodično poljoprivredno gospodarstvo u blizini Johnvillea, NB Andrew je sam počeo da se bavi poljoprivredom kada je bio mlad i tokom godina je sanjao o proširenju farme, ali zemljište nije bilo dostupno u tom području - 2016. godine, to se promijenilo. “Imao sam priliku da kupim još jednu farmu. To je skoro 40 milja od mjesta gdje sam odrastao. Na kraju sam prodao svoju kućnu farmu i preselio se”, kaže Andrew u telefonskom intervjuu.
He had been running late to a grower meeting for McCain Foods when he got talking to another grower who was also running late. The man mentioned he was looking to retire, one thing led to another, and a few nights later the two met. A plan was quickly made for Andrew to buy the retiring growers’ farm in Bloomfield, N.B.
That wasn’t the only farm Andrew bought. He also bought a neighbouring farm, and in the end, was able to double his potato acreage and triple his contract volume with McCain Foods. Some changes had to be made though. On his old farm he had raised beef cattle, but the new farms didn’t have the infrastructure for livestock, so the cows were sold.
“I’ve moved to an area with better-quality topsoil than I had where I grew up. The ground is better, and I do have a neighbour here that is a large dairy farmer. I swap ground with them,” he explains. Andrew now plants 450 to 500 acres of dryland potatoes annually with rotation crops of soybeans, wheat and hay. He mainly plants processing potatoes for McCain Foods, but he also grows his own Russet Burbank sjeme.
“We grow between two and three different varieties depending on the year — the Russet Burbank being like 85 per cent of what we grow. So, we grow that seed but if we grow Shepody’s or Innovators or something else that (McCain) wants us to try, we buy that usually from them,” he adds. His father James was the one who started growing seed on the farm. At the time, Andrew had just joined the farm full time and James saw there was opportunity for them to expand their production into seed growing.
“Drugi ljudi su to radili u to vrijeme i on je to nekako shvatio, i osjećao je da sam dovoljno nestrpljiv da uzgajam krompir da počnem,” kaže Andrew.
Andrewov otac je u penziji, ali i dalje ponekad pomaže na farmi. Njegov sin Evan pohađa Univerzitet New Brunswick ljeti radeći na farmi, dok njegova supruga Dale ima posao van farme, ali također radi i knjige na farmi. Njegova kćerka Kler, koja je u srednjoj školi, pomaže tokom sadnje i žetve na farmi. Zapošljavaju četiri do pet sezonskih radnika tokom vegetacije, a 15 za berbu.
Tokom zima kada se terenski radovi usporavaju, seku drva za fabriku četinara. „Imamo i dosta drva, to nije veliki posao za nas, ali uvijek smo svake zime sekli malo drva“, dodaje Andrew. “Mi nismo producenti ili nešto slično, samo nam daje nešto da radimo kako bismo nas nekoliko zaokupili.”
Vezani članci Farmer krompira bez zemlje
