Badger Common’Tater April 2024 Issue
Interview with Shawn Bula
By Joe Kertzman, managing editor, Badger Common’Tater
Shawn Bula (left) with daughter Kyra Bula (right)
A story of resilience, like the backstories of many farms and farmers, Signature Farms LLC, and under previous ownership as Bula-Gieringer Farms, has not only survived the usual daily curveballs thrown by Mother Nature, but also a tornado and an unfortunate fire.
Yet, when approaching the farm in Grand Marsh, Wisconsin, one is welcomed by beautiful buildings, a new sign, office and shop, and fields as far as the eye can see.
One of the largest potato and vegetable operations in Wisconsin, Signature Farms raises approximately 10,000 acres of potatoes, green beans, seed corn, sweet corn, field and silage corn, soybeans, alfalfa, and sweet potatoes, as well as 200-250 head of black Angus cattle at any one time on 1,100 acres of pastureland.
With Bula-Gieringer Farms founded in 1980 by Shawn Bula’s father, Mark, in partnership with Ray Gieringer and later transitioning to Mark Gieringer and the rest of the Gieringer family, the operation encompasses land in several Wisconsin counties, as well as working acreage in Florida.
To offer potatoes and vegetables year-round, or as Shawn says, “as close as we can,” Signature Farms partners with Paul Sowinski of Sowinski Farms on land in Melbourne, Florida, where they grown corn and potatoes, the latter for chips and dicing for fresh market potato salad.
