Andrew Cummings estivo cultivando patacas toda a súa vida, pero non cultiva a mesma terra que os seus pais.
Durante décadas, a familia do agricultor Andrew Cummings, de quinta xeración, traballara a terra na súa granxa familiar preto de Johnville, NB Andrew comezou a cultivar el mesmo cando era novo e co paso dos anos soñaba con ampliar a granxa, pero a terra non estaba dispoñible na zona; en 2016, isto cambiou. “Tiven a oportunidade de comprar outra granxa. Está a case 40 quilómetros de onde me criei. Acabei vendendo a miña granxa e mudándome", di Andrew nunha entrevista telefónica.
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 semente.
“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.
"Outras persoas facíano nese momento e el entendeuno, e sentiu que tiña moitas ganas de cultivar patacas para comezar", di Andrew.
O pai de Andrew está xubilado, pero aínda axuda na granxa ás veces. O seu fillo Evan asiste á Universidade de New Brunswick traballando os veráns na granxa, mentres que a súa muller Dale ten un traballo fóra da granxa, pero tamén se encarga dos libros da granxa. A súa filla Claire, que está no instituto, axuda durante a plantación e a colleita na granxa. Contratan entre catro e cinco traballadores estacionais durante a tempada de crecemento, con 15 contratados para a colleita.
Durante os invernos, cando o traballo de campo se ralentiza, cortan madeira para un muíño de madeira blanda. "Tamén temos moita madeira, non é un gran negocio para nós, pero sempre cortamos un pouco de madeira cada inverno", engade Andrew. "Non somos produtores nin nada, só dános algo que facer para manternos ocupados a un par de persoas".
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