US: Potato farming takes center stage at Hastings Ag Center

With harvest time approaching — or already arrived — local potato farmers, researchers and those in the farming industry recently spent a few hours together in Hastings collaborating on ways to make the business even better. St. Johns County and the University of Florida hosted the annual Potato Field Day event Tuesday at the UF/IFAS Hastings Agricultural Extension Center. Potatoes are a big deal in St. Johns County, and production here is important to the rest of the country. Bonnie Wells, a local agriculture agent with UF, said about 30 percent of the spring potato crop in the United States comes from the region. So whatever happens on local farms has an impact on the entire industry. More