Andy Diercks, a fourth-generation potato farmer from the small village of Coloma in central Wisconsin, is blunt about the difficult realities facing family-owned farms today.
“There are days when the choices aren’t always good, and you’re making the least bad choice,” he said. “But we’ve survived well. I’m proud of what we do here.”
For decades, Diercks’ family and farmers across the state have worked closely with vegetable researchers at the University of Wisconsin to ensure a healthy harvest, from the initial seed supply to disease prevention and management.
Amanda Gevens, a UW-Division of Extension specialist and the department chair of plant pathology, knows all too well the high stakes for Wisconsin farms. She arrived at the university in July 2009 — the same month that a late blight epidemic hit the state for the first time in nearly a decade. Gevens had to learn how to relay critical information to farmers in a timely useful manner so that they could take action against the debilitating plant disease.
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