Farming’s future is in good hands

    Zachary Pryor wants to be a farmer. He planted his first acres of potatoes this year at 16 years of age. When I met with him recently, he and his Dad were going to be harvesting their potato crop the next day which also happened to be Zach’s birthday. I was able to sympathize as I am also a potato harvest baby and spent the first 18 years of my life picking potatoes on my birthday. Zach seems resigned to this inevitability however as his life’s ambition is to continue in Aroostook’s potato farming tradition.
    Like most kids who grow up on a working farm, he began helping his Dad at an early age — beginning with riding the tractor and then, when he was a bit older, working in the potato house during harvest. I can remember spring drives down Carmichael Road in Littleton and seeing Zach picking rocks in the field. Every farm kid works his/her way up through all jobs on the farm, no matter how tedious. During potato harvest, Zach has since graduated from the potato house to running the windrower (a machine that picks up potatoes in two rows and dumps them in the row that the harvester will be coming down). I asked him if he was going to drive the harvester on his potato ground this year and he pretty quickly said “no,” that there were way too many buttons on it for him to keep track of. He was happy just driving the windrower.
Contributed photo/Angie Wotton
YOUNG FARMER — Zachary Pryor of Littleton planted his first acres of potatoes this year. Like most kids who grow up on a working farm, he began helping his dad at an early age — beginning with riding the tractor and, when he was older, working in the potato house during harvest.
    Zach is fortunate to be part of a farm family and have the support and knowledge of farming generations before him. His father, Mark, is the one who suggested that Zach grow a few acres himself this year. Zach agreed and contacted the youth loan program with the Farm Service Agency to help him get started financially. He was able to plant four and a half acres of Yukon Golds and has worked with his father throughout the process of purchasing seed, planting, determining a spray schedule, and probably even picking a rock or two.
    A challenge outside of farming is balancing school with potato harvest. Missing school to work during harvest is difficult when you are expected to keep up with homework assignments. The theory sounds admirable but when a typical work day begins at 5 a.m. and ends at 7 or 8 p.m., there is no energy available at the end of the day to do anything except eat and get some sleep. However, Zach and others like him, who value the work they get during harvest, are willing to take the chance of getting behind in their studies. Some of the once-famous Aroostook County work ethic in action!
    Once Zach’s 2011 potato crop is harvested, his plans are to store it until market prices are hopefully ideal. Despite this year’s challenging growing weather and not being able to get in the field when he needed to, Zach is optimistic about his first potato crop. As eternal optimism seems to be the essential ingredient in farming, I’d say Zach is already a farmer.
    Editor’s note: Angie Wotton loves her work as district manager for the Southern Aroostook Soil and Water Conservation District. She also raises pastured pork and vegetables with her husband on their small West Berry Farm in Hammond. She can be reached 532-9407 or via e-mail at angela.wotton@me.nacdnet.net.