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Potato King Puts Chips on Table

by Thomas Hartley 

Friday, January 1, 2010

 Tom McCormick's Wyoming County business makes him the spud king. Until recently, Wyoming County was the No. 3 potato producer in the state.

But with new data, it takes the tater title.

Recent agricultural statistics show that the county east of Buffalo is the most productive in growing potatoes, and McCormick Farms in the Town of Hermitage is the king of spuds.

A second-generation family business, the 6,000-acre farm is owned and run by the McCormick family – Jim McCormick, the main principal, his brother Tom and their mother, Elizabeth.

Begun in 1946 by the late Paul McCormick, the farm – including 2,200 acres for potatoes – also has a large dairy operation with 1,100 milking cows.

But potatoes and the 70 million pounds yielded annually are what give McCormick Farms its fame as a multimillion-dollar grower.

“McCormick Farms grows the most number of acres of potatoes in New York. And like theirs, a lot of potato farms are family-owned,” says Melanie Wickham, executive director of the 175-member Empire State Potato Growers Inc.

Wyoming County only recently won the right to call itself New York’s potato capital. For years, Suffolk County in eastern Long Island held the position. Steuben County was a distant second and Wyoming County a close third.

But the urbanization of Long Island has shaken up the rankings. Large amounts of farmland, including acres used for potatoes, have been lost to developers.

“There are only 800 potato growers left in the U.S., and they do 90 percent of the growing for the potato chip industry, which we supply,” McCormick said.

Much of the potato chip industry is based in Pennsylvania, home of McCormick Farms’ two biggest customers, Wise Foods Inc. and Utz Quality Foods. Wise sells snack foods east of the Mississippi and Utz distributes its products from Maine to South Carolina.

“Thirty-seven percent of all chip makers lie within 350 miles of Wyoming County,” says McCormick, whose farm specializes in growing potatoes for potato chips.

Until recently, growing, harvesting and preparing potatoes for shipment was a labor-intensive operation that required as many as 10 people between October and May to examine and sort potatoes for cold storage at the farm or direct-from-the-field shipping to processors.

But last summer, the McCormicks upgraded their sorting and examination process by investing in new computer-assisted technology that checks for defects automatically while sorting potatoes electronically.

“The $250,000 Titan Odenberg, which is made by an Irish company, has lowered our labor costs and gives us a more consistent run of potatoes,” McCormick says.

Counter to what generally is believed of automation, the new technology did not cause layoffs. Instead, it led to increased production, he said.

While electronic sorters typically do the work of four to 10 workers, none of the 30 employees of McCormick Farms, including up to 10 sorters who work between October and May, lost employment even though their jobs were eliminated because of the new technology, McCormick said.

“In fact, we have more people working for us (in the potato and dairy operations) than ever before,” he said.

“The new sorter allowed us to create positions for large equipment operators, in maintenance and repair, and truck drivers,” McCormick said. “Our productivity increased and revenues rose because of more efficient sorting and inspection.”

McCormick’s sorters were long-term seasonal employees who were area housewives, college students or retired people. When electronic sorting eliminated their jobs, they were assigned to other work such as laboratory technician, truck driver or in quality control, McCormick said.