“We’re excited about the fall,” Rod Gumz says of his firm’s Wisconsin specialty potato season. Gumz is a partner with his brother, Richard, in Gumz Muck Farms LLC in Endeavor, Wis. The company trades with its brand name, Gumz Farms.
Gumz grows, packs and ships red and yellow potatoes. The 2020 harvest began in the early days of August and is expected to run into mid-October.
“The crop looks good,” he says. “We’ve had timely rains, and the quality is strong this season. It’s looking good going into the fall. We have above-average yields.”
Some of the crop will be placed in storage, which is typically finished in February. Gumz Farms ships fresh potatoes year-round, purchasing all types of potatoes from growers located in Wisconsin, the Red River Valley and other national growing districts. In total, Gumz ships about 15 to 20 percent of the red fresh potatoes grown in Wisconsin. There is a good national demand for red and yellow potatoes, which has maintained good retail prices, Gumz says.
Fresh potato sales to retail customers have been strong. “We’ve maintained our customers despite global complications created by COVID-19. There is a lot of good business around the country.”
Gumz Farms does not necessarily ship under its own label, which has kept the company relatively “under the radar” nationally, he adds.
Gumz is an onion grower, producing about 40 percent of Wisconsin’s onion crop. The firm is also a major grower of mint. The company grows field corn and beans for rotation crops on 6,500 tillable acres.
Gumz operates from a state-of-the-art packing and shipping facility that was built five years ago.