The University of Wisconsin-Madison has a new collaborator to improve potato seed production efficiency at the Lelah Starks Elite Foundation Seed Potato Farm in Rhinelander, Wisconsin.

The farm provides early-generation seed potatoes for the state’s producers and other farmers in exchange for a fee as part of the university’s Wisconsin Seed Potato Certification Program.

To take over the activities of planting, growing, and harvesting seed spuds at the Lelah Starks Farm for the crop year 2023 and beyond, a group of four seed potato growers, including Eagle River Seed Farm, Baginski Farms, Schroeder Brothers Farms, and J.W. Mattek & Sons, formed the Wisconsin Potato Coalition (WPC) this fall.

According to the new agreement, the private WPC will oversee several hundred acres of rotational crops in addition to the roughly 40 hectares of early-generation seed potatoes. The Wisconsin potato industry’s need for clean, early-generation foundation seed is the focus of the WPC.

The early stages of the seed potatoes production process, as well as overall testing and certification for the program, will continue to be carried out by university scientists and inspectors with the Wisconsin Seed Potato Certification Program. They will draw on their knowledge of plant pathogens, disease management, and diagnostics.

“This new public-private partnership capitalizes on the strengths of both partners,” said Amanda Gevens, professor and extension specialist in the plant pathology department and the current administrative director of the certification program.

According to the Wisconsin Administrative Code, the University of Wisconsin is required to accredit seed potatoes based on their cleanliness and variety under the Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection’s cooperative certification program.

The initiative is managed by researchers in the Department of Plant Pathology at the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, who also make certain that Wisconsin’s USD350m potato business has a sufficient supply of high-quality seed potatoes.

“Our coalition is excited to provide this service for the Wisconsin industry. Local potato farms are strongly positioned in the national potato industry when we have a clean, quality source for early-generation seed in Wisconsin,” Kevin Schleicher, director of WPC and director of sales for Wysocki Family of Companies, said.

Each winter, the WPC will enter into contracts with seed potato buyers to decide how many and what kinds of seed potatoes to grow at the Lelah Starks Farm. The certified seed potatoes will subsequently be planted, raised, harvested, and stored by the coalition.

The coalition members and scientists will continue to collaborate on research at the farm, and the university will continue to oversee the on-site greenhouses and their mini-tuber production.

A 16-hectare spring-fed lake is surrounded by about 162 tillable hectares on the 404-hectare Lelah Starks Farm. Due to the area’s seclusion from nearby potato farms, fertile sandy loam soil, and cold winters that kill many plant infections, it is an ideal place to grow seed potatoes. Every year, potatoes are rotated throughout around 40 hectares.