Potatoes, touchdowns: Farmer works for both
ROYAL CITY - Wiley Allred smiles with delight when he sees the McDonald's French fry commercial that features Warden potato grower Frank Martinez. It takes him back to his own beginnings in the industry.
It was 1983, Allred's first year of farming on his own. He had rented the place formerly farmed by his father, Wells Allred, at mile post 8 on state Route 262 East, near the Potholes Reservoir.
Across the road and down a short way from the Allred farm lived Martinez. He and the Allreds were better than mere acquaintances.
Martinez came to Allred early that year with a potato proposition. He had a contract but not enough ground to produce the potatoes the contract required. He wanted Allred to partner with him.
"He gave me over night to think about it," Allred said.
The next morning, Allred agreed to put up 90 acres of ground. They shared the farming.
"We went 50-50," Allred said.
From that initiation by Martinez, Allred has grown up to 800 acres of potatoes. He has grown into what some people might call a big farmer.
Allred thinks of Martinez fondly all of these years later. He smiles broadly at the thought of the commercial spotlighting Martinez's man-of-the-earth persona.
"He's a good man," Allred said recently, pleased with the old friend's new-found celebrity.
Diversified, Allred has 300 acres of apples, and he produces peas, sweet corn, field corn and more than one variety of hay. He also has a 200-head cow-calf operation.
The diversity doesn't stop there. Allred is the coach of the highly successful Royal High School football team.
Allred found you can mix football with farming and not miss a beat in either. The keys are talent and dedication, which he has on the farm and on the field. He can walk away from either and count on the work being done.
Allred believes more than one man on his coaching staff could be a head coach. He believes some on his farm crew could be farmers.
He said, the farm hands enjoy his absences. It gives them the opportunity to show him what they can do, and it gives him the opportunity to give a shout-out or pat on the shoulder.
"They know how to do their jobs. I know I can count on them," he said.
In addition to the hired help, Allred noted the farming operation counts on his wife Maria and their five children. Maria does the books and payroll and will operate a hay baler when needed.
Allred's oldest son was an All-State linebacker in 2007. He's in college now. Another son was a sophomore back-up quarterback this fall.
He has coached four Class A state title winners and another team that played for the championship. Allred's club this year made the final eight. Neighboring Connell won the title and Allred, a good judge of talent, is fine with that.
"The right team won the state championship," he said.
The right team next year may be Allred's own Knights. They return eight starters on defense and offense, including an All-League quarterback.
"We're optimistic," he said.
Allred's overall farming career started in 1962 when he was just a boy of 2-years-old. Wells Allred and his wife Lorial purchased the 270-acre place that is now the center of operations.
The ground was just coming into irrigation, and the Allreds broke it out of sagebrush. Allred has no recollection of the year, but he remembers taking on farm chores, along side his siblings, as he grew.
They were not easy years. Not all of the ground was farmed until circle irrigation came. Wells Allred supported his family with the dual position of professor of economics and dean of students at Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake.
Allred and his siblings grew up with Royal High School, which opened in the fall of 1964. Allred's brother Calvin, a retired Arizona attorney, was a member of the first graduating class in 1965.
Then there was Lowell, a doctor in Ephrata. He was followed by Randy, a farmer at the west end of the Royal Slope area and a Grant County PUD commissioner.
Brother Jerry is a farmer and sister Janet (Anderson) farms with her husband within five minutes of Allred's place.
Royal High School became good at football almost immediately, and all of the Allred boys were part of the program at some point. Wiley got the glamour assignment of quarterback for the 1975-77 seasons under still-revered local coaching legend Bob Nielsen.
"He was pretty intense on the field," Allred recalls.
And simple. Allred was more runner than passer.
"If we threw the ball 10 times in a game, we were a passing team that day," he said.
Allred went on to a junior college career at Walla Walla Community College. He played cornerback until a track star - wide receiver - ran right by him. He was switched to safety, for which he was better suited.
"I liked hitting people," he said.
Allred's football playing days came to an end when he transferred to Washington State University (WSU). He knew he didn't have PAC-10 talent and concentrated on his general agriculture degree.
Allred coached while attending WSU. He came home on weekends and called defensive secondary coverages for Nielsen.
In 1983, Allred became a full-fledged assistant. Although he was starting his farm, he couldn't stay away from the athletic field.
Not long after arriving, Allred was made the defensive coach. Fifteen years later, when Nielsen was retiring, he was encouraged to apply for the head coaching job.
"They looked around the area for experienced head coaches," Allred said. "They all wanted to stay where they were."
Allred started with just a couple of assistants. He has grown his staff to six and there is a lot individual instruction in the program.
The Knights have made the state playoffs every year since Allred took over. An appreciative community recently rewarded him and the program with a facility some small colleges would envy. The Knights play their home games on field turf, just like large universities.
Football, like farming, is a year-around proposition. In January and February, Allred attends two or three coaching clinics that usually go three days. In April he appears at a college campus or two to observe spring practices.
"You learn more by watching," he said.
Right after Memorial Day, Allred runs the Knights through their own spring practice. It's capped off with a scrimmage against the much larger Moses Lake program.
"The kids really like that," he said.
To give all of his boys a good chance to complete the state-required number of pre-season practices, Allred starts fall camp with 4 to 5 days of two-a-days.
"I try to get my farming done by 1 p.m.," he said.
Regular fall practices start after school and go to 5:30 p.m.. Allred usually gets home after dark.
The rest of the year, Allred makes the trek into town just about every day after school to observe the weight room. Every football player who doesn't play another sport is expected, although not required, to be working out.
To keep up with the football and the farming, Allred starts his day at about 6:30 a.m. It's a long day. On the farm, it's mostly management, but it's also seat-of-a-tractor farming. Allred had to plant a crop himself this spring when the man he hired left suddenly.
Planting turned out to be a snap. Allred's John Deere, equipped with GPS, virtually steers itself. It made straighter rows than he could have commanded with the steering wheel.
"All I had to do was look back and keep an eye on the planter," he said. "It told me when I was getting to the end of a row so I could turn it."
As a farm manager, Allred is constantly on the lookout for challenges. Foremost among them is proper watering. He also must be concerned about proper operation of his controlled-atmosphere potato storage shed.
Peas can be adversely affected by early cold weather or too early a harvest.
Hay, which involves expensive seed, needs a good early stand, and plants can die rather easily.
Corn needs timely watering and timely spraying.
The cow-calf operation needs a high percentage of calf births. A disease epidemic can cause serious loss.
As for potatoes, Allred prefers producing for the process market to which Martinez introduced him. A higher percentage of a potato crop is acceptable for processing than for fresh market.
"The fresh market is so volatile," Allred said. "It can go up and down."
Although potatoes are not the biggest part of Allred's operation, by acreage, they are about half in economic terms. They are a high-value crop.
"They need to be," Allred said. "They cost about $3,000 an acre to grow."
Like all crops, potatoes have their challenges. Allred has to be on the lookout for hollow heart, nematodes and blights. The key is preventive practices such as spraying.
A good crop is 90 percent or better. The not-so-good crop range is 80 percent and down.
Good storage is important because potatoes start to deteriorate as soon as they come out of the ground.
"Potatoes never get better in storage," Allred said.
Allred grows the Alta, Ranger, Umatilla and Russet Burbank varieties, all members of the Russet family.
"It stores well," Allred said.
Eventually, Allred's potatoes end up at Lamb-Weston, where they become any of several products, such as Tater Tots or fries. From there, they go all over the world, maybe even to a McDonald's.