The WPVGA overcame obstacles to have a successful year as an organization
By Tamas Houlihan, WPVGA Executive Director
2021 can be described as a year that brought forth one challenge after another. To the great credit of our membership, these challenges were met, one by one, with great success.
In the end, the Wisconsin Potato & Vegetable Growers Association (WPVGA) and its members had a very successful year. The following are some of the highlights for the industry in 2021.
Above-Average Growing Conditions; Excellent Harvest Season
In 2021, Wisconsin potato growers faced a series of weather challenges from frost to extreme heat and from drought to heavy rains, but in the end a nearly ideal harvest season reaped a resilient crop in most of the state’s primary growing regions.
Wisconsin’s harvested potato acreage is approximately 65,000 acres. The average yield on acres harvested in Wisconsin is estimated to be 420 cwt. (hundredweight)/acre, a decrease of 5 cwt./acre compared to 2020.
That puts Wisconsin’s potato production at 27,300,000 cwt., an increase of 950,000 cwt., or 4 percent compared to 2020.
