Joe visits Doyle Prawl in Troy, Kansas to follow his potato planting, cultivating and harvesting cycle.
Doyle accomplishes all the work with his black mules. The two that do the planting are full sisters ages 9 and 11.
During his first visit, we watch Doyle's friend Mike Bonnett use a vintage potato cutter into seed potato pieces. Doyle is planting Runestone Gold potatoes as well as a Red Le Sota, Viking red and Kinnebec varieties. This equipment cuts in two directions and is operated by a foot pedal. The cutter dumps them into a burlap bag which they then dumped into the potato planter bin.
We see great close up and distance video of the steel wheeled planter in action as it discs/loosens the soil ahead of the planter, places a seed potato on top of the soil and discs move soil on top. This keeps the soil from compacting on top of the seed potato which can cause deformation. Hilling the potatoes prevents them from getting sunburned. Doyle instructs his mule team with a calm, quiet voice.
In his second visit Joe films as Doyle cultivates, hills and weeds his sprouted potato plants.
In the third visit we watch the potato harvest. Doyle uses a four mule team to pull the ground drive potato digger which digs then conveys the potatoes to the rear after having separated them from the plant and soil. Friends collect and brush some dirt off and put in buckets.
Doyle eventually sells most of his potato crop at a local market. He grows 3000-4000 pounds per year, hauling 800-1000 pounds at a time.
Joe asks Doyle what he likes about raising potatoes and he says he loves being outside and working with his mules.
#draftmules #workingmules
1 фев 2020
