CLEAN SEED.GOOD GROUND.BETTER PEOPLE.
About Shasta Seed
Shasta Seed grows potato seed along with organic and conventional crops, in the Klamath Basin of southern Oregon. Here the growing season, the isolation, and the soil make for clean, vigorous seed. As part of the Gold Dust and Walker Farms family of companies, we provide seed for commercial potato growers who need a crop they can count on from the day it goes in the ground. Every field is managed by people who understand that a seed grower's reputation rides on someone else's harvest.
Our approach to stewardship
The way we farm is shaped by where we farm. Our fields sit alongside the wetlands and wildlife of the Basin, and that keeps stewardship practical rather than abstract: we rotate crops, protect soil structure, and manage nutrients to what each field needs. Just as important are the people doing the work. We train from within, promote from within, and build careers in agriculture. Our operation counts on a team from the Basin and well beyond it, because a farm that wants to be here in another generation has to be a place where people want to stay.
How we farm
Cover Crop
Between potato crops, ground is planted rather than left open. Living roots hold soil against wind and water, keep nutrients where the next crop can reach them, and support beneficial insects. As the cover breaks down it feeds soil biology and adds organic matter before seed goes back in.
Nutrient Management
Fertility on a seed farm is about a healthy, uniform tuber, not maximum tonnage. Each field starts with a soil test and a realistic target, and applications are matched to what the crop needs when it needs it. That keeps inputs efficient and keeps excess out of the Basin's water.
Conservation Crop Rotation
Seed potatoes return to a field only after several years in grain, hay, or other crops. The break starves the pest and disease pressure that builds up under a single crop, and each rotation crop gives back some of what the last one used, building organic matter and stronger seed over time.