Monte Vista, CO — Expecting to ship 2014 storage russets well into 2015’s summer, Monte Vista Potato Growers is looking to plant its 2015 crop during May, according to General Manager Jason Tillman.

Tillman said on April 13 that the grower cooperative association was on schedule to finish its spuds in mid-July and start shipping new crop in mid-October. Planting will be done in May, as the likelihood of Rocky Mountain wintry weather diminishes, and Tillman said the cooperative’s growers are looking at a normal crop with no big changes.

Russet varieties such as Canela, Mesa, Norkotahs and Centennials are some 85 percent of MVPG’s production, with the remaining 15 percent in yellows. Volume is anticipated to remain at approximately 500,000 cwt again this year.

“We’re staying with the same program for 2015-16,” Tillman said.

The operation ships primarily five- and 10-pound bags and 50-pound cartons, and Tillman said that for the 2014-15 season cartons have been moving well. “The poly business has seen some soft prices,” he said.

Most sales are to large retail chains, with major receivers in the Southeast. Mexico is also a good market for the operation, and Tillman said loads going into the 26-kilometer buffer have remained solid during the shipping season.

Yellows, which had seen good movement after the first of the year, had cleaned up by the middle of April, and trucks, which had been tight, were more available going into the spring and summer.

MVPG, like all San Luis Valley potato operations, keeps a constant eye to the water situation in the region. Snowpack in the San Juans, which feeds the Rio Grande River and provides water to growers, was at only 54 percent of normal in the middle of April, and Tillman said, “Everyone is worried about that.”

Colorado’s mountains often receive their biggest snowfalls of the year during the spring, but Tillman said the consensus is it will take multiple weather events to get the numbers up.

Sticking to a program that has been successful for MVPG, Tillman said nothing definite is on the boards in the way of shed upgrades, although a polishing system for yellows has been considered. In recent years the SCS GlobalGAP-certified facility has added New Tec baggers. It has also kept abreast of food-safety requirements, and Tillman said the majority of the cooperative’s farms are also GAP-certified with trace-back protocol in place.

“We’re still plugging away,” he said of the longtime cooperative. “Business is staying consistent.”