January 2022 - 16

" I figured out I couldn't make a living
and pay for places with nothing but cows,
that's how we got started doing more
farming, " he said. With that decision
he started growing potatoes for Simplot
and soon growing sugar beets.
It was during this time that he
moved to his current homestead in
Hidden Valley, east of Dietrich, and
became the middleman for a group of
investment bankers that were using
farmland for tax shelter purposes.
Once again Telford found himself in
financial straits.
" The whole thing crumbled in a year
and a half and I was left completely
on my own, " Telford said. " I was just a
young kid, you know. I went to everyone
involved and said 'If you'll transfer some
debt on to this 400 acres, the original
place we're sitting on and let me assume
that debt that would create equity in
the other place and when you get that
sold, you'll get your money.' "
Telford said it was an offer the investors
couldn't refuse. They could either work
with him and eventually recoup some
of their original investments or let the
entire project go into bankruptcy.
From that setback Telford was able to
help recover their investments and build
up his own equity on his homestead.
" That's how I got my start and from
that original 400 acres, we've added to
it and added to it to where there's about
2,500 acres, " he said of the original
homestead in Hidden Valley.
Mike and Shannon Telford working together to sort potatoes on the conveyor belt from the
dirt clods, various field debris and defective potatoes, as they head into storage.
It was another turn of events in
1982 that would result in changing his
focus from processing potatoes to seed
potatoes.
Throughout the years he has
continued to raise Holstein heifers and in
1982 he had purchased land in Richfield
for grazing purposes and to grow some
seed for his Simplot contracts.
" It's kind of colder and we're very
isolated, " Telford said. " There's nothing
but desert all the way around us as far
as you can see. It's real isolated for seed
production, and we always had a hard
time getting size anyway, so in 1982 we
converted over to nothing but seed. "
Telford said that when he decided
to grow seed potatoes he went around
asking people " who's the best? " He said
that every list would begin with John
Schutter. They purchase
generation
two, or field year three from Schutter
Farms in Montana and then grow out
seed for their commercial growers.
" I determined that I had to buy seed
from John Schutter and find out and
learn everything I could from him, " he
said. " So, I called him and they were all
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14
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http://www.Spudman.com
January 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2022
