Our focus is on seed potatoes. We grow about 27 million pounds of seed potatoes each year. We also grow wheat and a bit of rye.

In short: As little as possible. Iott Seed Farms takes its role as a steward of our state’s resources very seriously.

Irrigation systems have undergone impressive improvements in efficiency since we installed our first center pivot system in the mid-1970s. Properly calibrated pivots, low pressure drip nozzles and frequency drives on pumps are just a few of the things we use to ensure maximum irrigation efficiency.

In the end, water is necessary to grow crops and feed an always increasing world population. But we do our best to use water efficiently.

Groundwater in Michigan is renewable. Our state gets an abundance of rain and snow across the entire state, including the vast majority of the area that is not irrigated. The rivers, lakes and underground aquifers are refilled annually.

Iott Seed Farms has partnered with Midwest Water Stewards to install and monitor three monitoring wells and to monitor nearby streams and rivers to ensure that irrigation is not having an adverse effect on the water supply. All the data we have collected so far is positive.

Iott Seed Farms has voluntarily installed three monitoring wells on our property to ensure that we are using water responsibly and are not having an adverse effect on our environment and our neighbors.

Farmers across the state of Michigan take their roles as stewards of our land and resources seriously and have done the same. There are more than 250 test wells — paid for voluntarily by the farms — currently in place on farms in Michigan.

Yes. Iott Seed Farms is a family farm and a corporate farm. For legal reasons, a good number of family businesses are incorporated. But the owners of Iott Seed Farms are Dennis Iott and Greg Iott, who are brothers, and Bryan Fischer, one of their nephews. Bryan’s father, Randy Fischer, also works on the farm.

Since Iott Seed Farms grows seed potatoes, we need a facility to store those potatoes through the winter to be shipped to other farmers in the spring. The building on M-66 holds about 25 million pounds of potatoes.

Any business that isn’t growing is getting left behind. We have increased growing and storage capacity several times over the years for a few reasons. In the early 1980s, there were 500 potato growers in Michigan. Today, there are fewer than 100, but the number of acres dedicated to growing potatoes in the state is about the same as it was 40 years ago. We are growing our business because it’s a necessity, because there is opportunity and because it is fun.

Iott Seed Farms grows about 27 million pounds of potatoes each year. North River Vodka, owned by Chris Iott, Dennis and Greg Iott’s brother, uses 30,000 to 50,000 pounds of potatoes every time they do a vodka run, which is once every year or two. We are a seed potato farm.

Iott Seed Farms grows Blackberry variety potatoes and sells them to Great Lakes Potato Chip Co. in Traverse City. Due to the limited supply of purple potatoes, those chips are available seasonally and for a short time each year. When they are for sale, Great Lakes Potato Chip Co. has them on their website.