This large family farm is 9 miles east of Moses Lake, Wash., on the eastern side of the Columbia Basin Irrigation project.

The entire farm is irrigated with water from the Columbia River and from the Odessa Aquifer.

It produces potatoes for the processing industry as well as other crops.

Derek Friehe is second generation. His father arrived 40 years ago from Germany to farm because there was irrigation.

“He sold his farm in Germany, where he grew sugar beets, and saw the Columbia Basin Project, and the land hadn’t been totally developed. Most of our farm is part of the project but we have a large chunk of ground in the Odessa area, depending on wells and still waiting for completion of the project,” Derek said.

“We’ve been advocating for completion of the second half of the project; the Odessa Groundwater Replacement Program is working on getting 87,000 acres irrigated by the canal system.”

Derek has been back on the farm for 8 years, slowly taking over for his dad.

“Potatoes have been the mainstay that enabled the farm to expand, but we also rotate many other crops — with a rotation back to potatoes every four years. We’ve diversified into seed crops and last year grew more than 15 different crops,” he said. “These are all grown with surface water from the canals. We are very limited on well water with what we can do, though we can grow some potatoes on our deep wells.”

On that part of the farm, there is a lot more land than water, and much of it is currently fallow.

“I work with my sister and brother-in-law, and my brother farms in this area as well. We are growing as a family and thinking long-term,” he said.

They are hoping the irrigation project will be completed so there will be a future for subsequent generations.

“My parents are about to have their 19th grandchild. My wife and I are about to have our sixth kid. Ours are age 10, 8, 6, 4 and 2 and the next one will be born in February,” Derek said in January.

The Friehe farm relies on many employees.

“Irrigated agriculture is much more intense than dryland,” Friehe said. “A lot of dryland farmers who farm the same acres we do only have 3 or 4 employees, whereas I have 60 full-time guys — and up to 120 during harvest.”

Irrigated land requires more management and people per acre.

“This is another reason the irrigation project is so important, regarding jobs and the economy,” he said. “It’s probably a 10-to-1 ratio in terms of people that need to be hired to get the job done.”

The increased production is worth it, for everyone.

“We grow three varieties of potatoes, all for french fries. Many of the potatoes in the Northwest get exported to East Asia, Japan, China, etc. and many go to quick-service restaurants like McDonalds,” Derek said.

“We sell to Simplot — right down the road from us. They ship to their distribution centers and export markets,” he said. “Washington and the Columbia Basin probably grow the highest yields per acre in the nation and maybe the world. Many processors are here because of the abundance of potatoes. Our weather and soils are perfect.

“The last 10 years have been a little tough, growing potatoes, but last year the prices came up and we had good weather and good yields, so things are starting to turn around. There is global demand for french fries and frozen processed potatoes.”

Many processors want more acres in potatoes because they have customers overseas that want more, he said. “There is a lot of good soil here that just needs water.”

Processors are looking to grow their facilities and are counting on expansion of the irrigation project, to have more land growing potatoes. They are thinking long-term, regarding water and more potato production in this area.”