Virtual Field Trip to a Potato Farm
R.D. Offutt Farms in Park Rapids, MN
Ever wonder where french fries come from? We joined R.D. Offutt Farms for a live tour of a Minnesota potato harvest and followed potatoes from underground in the field to a giant storage shed holding enough potatoes to make millions of french fries. Hosted by Farm Manager Luke Warmbold, this virtual field trip showcased the harvest process, the technology used on today's farms, and the many careers that help bring food from the field to your table.
This 30 min virtual field trip was designed for K-5 students.
About the Farm
R.D. Offutt Farms is a long-time family-owned farm located in the Park Rapids area in northern Minnesota. The owner, Ron Offutt, is one of the biggest potato growers in the country! His farms are also partnered with Lamb Weston, a global company that processes potatoes. Together, they operate the Lamb Weston RDO Processing Plant located in Park Rapids which supplies potato products to many well-known companies, including McDonald’s and Taco John’s.
The tour was hosted by Luke Warmbold, the farm manager at R.D. Offutt, who has worked for the company full time for 25 years! His dad, uncle, cousin, and kids have also worked at the farm, making it a family effort. The farm is very large, spanning close to 100 miles across with an average of about 8000 acres of potatoes every year!
The Potatoes
There are many different species of potatoes, but RDO farms just five different varieties. About 50% of their crop is Russet Burbank, about 40% is Umatilla Russett, and the remaining 10% is divided up between Russet Dakota, Altena, and Hamlin varieties. Russet Burbank is one of the oldest and most farmed varieties. It’s preferred over other types of potatoes because it can last much longer in storage.
Planting
Did you know that potato plants, unlike some other crops, can be grown by just planting a potato into the ground? At RDO, 90% of what they plant in the spring is “whole seed,” meaning a whole potato.
By planting the whole potato, farmers can get a better estimate of how big the plant will become and how many potatoes it will produce. One potato will grow into one plant with multiple stems. Underground, the plant will yield about 10-12 potatoes of about equal size.
The seasons in Minnesota change quickly, so farmers must act fast to get their crops planted. With the help of advanced technology, planting has become very efficient! Farmers use the size of the potato they’re planting to determine how far apart the rows need to be in the field. Then, they program the GPS in the planters which creates very accurate rows. As the planters move around the field, a payloader will fill them with more potatoes, speeding up the planting process.
Growing
Our host Luke shared that there are three main factors that contribute to plant growth: irrigation, nutrients, and sun. Minnesota often does not get enough rain, so commercial farms use irrigation systems to evenly distribute water. Fields also have different types of soil that have different levels of nutrients. In order for the potato plant to thrive, agronomists make recommendations about what type of fertilizer farmers should use, how much to use, and if the plants need any other treatments to stay healthy.
Potato plants have two parts: the vines and leaves that grow above ground, and the potatoes that grow along the roots under the soil. Potatoes can grow to be as small as a golf ball or as big as a football. Every farm has a different size of potato they want to grow. RDO aims for their potatoes to be about five to six ounces by the end of the growing season.
Harvesting
The harvest season begins around the end of August or early September. Farmers determine their harvest date based on temperature and moisture. Prime potato harvesting time is when the potatoes are between 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
If the potatoes are too warm in the ground or are too wet, they won’t store for very long after being harvested. However, if the temperatures are below freezing, the potatoes will bruise easily and won’t taste good.
Many machines work together during the harvest. In the field, windrowers and harvesters get the potatoes out of the soil. The machines harvest 16 rows at a time: two windrower machines pick up the outer six rows on either side and dump them on the inner four rows. Then, a harvester drives forward to collect all the potatoes at once. A truck drives alongside the harvester to hold the potatoes, and once it’s full, the driver goes to a storage bin or processing plant to drop off the crop.
Storage
Most of the harvested potatoes will be put into storage until the processing plant needs them. Storage bins are large buildings that control the temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide levels to make sure the potatoes don’t go bad. At RDO, the bins hold about 120 million pounds of potatoes, which is equal to about 65 million McDonald’s medium sized french fries.
When a truck arrives at the bin, they dump the potatoes into a machine called an evenflow that gets rid of any rocks, vines, and dirt that were picked up while harvesting. The potatoes then go down a conveyer belt towards the “piler” which puts the potatoes into the bin, stacking them into piles up to 18 feet high!
Processing
Processing plants are places where potatoes are turned into the delicious foods we love to eat, like french fries! During the early part of the harvest season, some trucks will bring potatoes from the field directly to the plant to be processed. But for most of the year, the farm will send potatoes to the plant from the storage bins.
When it’s time for potatoes to go from the storage bin to the processing plant, a person will operate a machine called “the hog” that pulls potatoes from the pile onto a conveyor system. A team of people will stand by the converter belt to pick out any rocks or debris, then the piler machine will load the potatoes back into a truck.
The Lamb Weston RDO frozen processing plant operates 24/7 and can go through 3.5 million pounds of potatoes per day! They produce french fries, hashbrowns, and other delicious potato products. Multiple farms supply the plant with potatoes and the plant decides which farm they need potatoes from depending on what product they’re making and which brand or label the product is for. While the farms may be growing the same type of potatoes, there are always variations in size and color that affect how the product looks when it's done.
Jobs in Agriculture
Operating a commercial farm requires a large team of people doing a variety of jobs. There are truck and tractor drivers, people operating machines to get the potatoes in and out of storage, people picking rocks and other materials off the conveyor line, agronomists, team leaders, managers, and more! At RDO, the truck drivers work for the farm and don’t need a special license to operate their truck. When new drivers are hired, they sit with the more experienced farmers to get trained on things like road safety and hauling potatoes in the field before they drive by themselves.
There are so many careers in agriculture that exist beyond the farm! Check out this series of videos from Lakeland PBS and the Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation about agricultural careers. It includes a 30-minute documentary and several short videos featuring a variety of careers, allowing educators to tailor the footage for students.
https://farmcampminnesota.org/careers-beyond-the-farm-lakeland-pbs-ag-career-videos/
Lesson Plans
Continue getting students engaged with potato farming with these lesson plans from our curriculum matrix!
Potatoes: More Than Fries (Grades K-2)
Students investigate potato varieties, explore potato plants, determine how potatoes grow, and make a potato recipe.
Powerful Potato (Grades 3-5)
Students observe a potato grow with and without soil, chart potato geography on a world map, and hold a potato dress up contest.
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October 16, 2026
Elliot Dusosky
Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom
