Potatoes

The Illinois Farm Family Who Inspired Lay’s ‘Last Harvest’ Super Bowl Commercial

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 22:28:26 GMT

It was a one-minute spot that captured hearts on Super Bowl Sunday. Lay’s “Last Harvest” commercial told the story of a farm family passing the torch from one generation to the next, rooted in memories, hard work and the bond between parent and child.

While the story in the Super Bowl ad was fictional, it was inspired by the real-life experiences of third-generation potato producer Tom Neumiller and his daughter Katie Floming, the fourth generation working alongside him at Neumiller Farms in Savanna, Ill.

A Story That Hits Home

Floming, operations manager at Neumiller Farms, recalls watching the commercial for the first time.

“I was so touched. It really hit home for me,” she says. “Growing up, if I wanted to see my parents, I had to go to the farm because they were always working. That’s where we spent our family time, quick meals, then back to work. I loved it. There are no complaints there. Being present at the farm was everything.”

The commercial’s depiction of a young girl chasing her parents through potato fields and learning the ropes mirrored Katie’s own childhood experiences. She laughs as she recalls one particular scene.

“When she came outside wearing white tennis shoes to work, that hit home. I remember showing up in sandals, and my dad would just shake his head. I had to go home and change,” Floming says..

For Neumiller, seeing their family’s life portrayed on such a massive stage was humbling.

“Farmers don’t usually end up in Super Bowl commercials, but this is very nice,” he says. “For that one-minute ad, they captured a farm family and our legacy all in one. It was just amazing.”

Floming adds that the story resonated with many viewers beyond their family.

“It’s very relatable. People would come up at the Super Bowl and say, ‘My grandfather was in that situation’ or ‘My family didn’t have the option to pass it on.’ It’s a story that connects with most people,” she says.

Farming in Northern Illinois: Unique Challenges

Neumiller Farms isn’t a typical potato operation. Neumiller explains growing potatoes in northern Illinois requires creativity, considering they are the lone family growing potatoes in northern Illinois.

“We’re the only ones in the area,” Neumiller says. “You need good water and light, sandy soil. Illinois has pockets of sand, so we’ve become a very mobile farm. We have one farm 150 miles away, another 30 miles south and another 15 miles north. It allows us to manage the light soils and adequate water we need.”

Floming now manages daily operations, but Neumiller remains deeply involved.

“I’m old school. I want to be involved in everything,” he says. “I talk to the managers every day. I get here early and stay around, maybe too long, but I stay involved in everything.”

The family works side by side, literally.

Floming says: “Our desks are right next to each other. We’re constantly feeding off each other, and we always know what’s going on.”

Neumiller smiles, adding: “My wife’s on the other side, and we’ve been married 54 years. She’s been involved in the business from way back.”

“He doesn’t get a break,” Floming quips.

Passing the Torch

Though Neumiller hopes for a few more harvests, Floming embraces the responsibility of continuing the family legacy.

“I’m very thankful to still be farming alongside my dad,” she says. “He’s grown the farm, but it’s my responsibility to keep it going, for our family, our employees and our community. I want to do the best I can to preserve our foundation while building for the future.”

A plaque on the wall of Neumiller Farms signifies seven decades of producing potatoes for Frito-Lay, a partnership that made their story perfect for Lay’s Super Bowl spotlight.

Neumiller reflects on the broader significance: “All of us farmers, we’re not usually in the spotlight. But it’s an honor to show the connection between soil, farming and the food we produce. Sustainability, passing on the farm, doing the job right — it all matters. Our story continues, and that’s what I hope to pass on.”

A Last Harvest That Connected Us All

As Lay’s “Last Harvest” reminded viewers on Super Bowl Sunday, the foods we enjoy come from real families working the land, generation after generation. For the Neumillers, that legacy is alive and thriving, one potato at a time, creating a story that connected us all.

If you thought the 60-second commercial was memorable, watch the full three-minute version on Lay’s YouTube page .

Specialty Crops Suffered Staggering Economic Losses in 2025, Will Relief Come in Time?

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 14:35:01 GMT

Economic losses to specialty crops last year were on a level that can put farming operations out of business.

The American Farm Bureau Federation estimates $3.6 billion in economic losses for almonds, $1.4 billion for apples, $763 million for lettuce, and $717 million for potatoes alone.

Specialty crop leaders this week renewed their calls for urgent economic support for U.S. growers and shared their disappointment after the U.S. House released final spending bills Jan. 20 that did not include aid for American specialty crop producers.

While the Specialty Crops Farm Bill Alliance (SCFBA) says specialty crops, including fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, nursery, greenhouse and floriculture products, generate more than $75 billion annually in U.S. agricultural cash receipts, account for more than one-third of all U.S. crop sales and support rural economies nationwide, under the current USDA Farmer Bridge Assistance program, $11 billion is allocated to row crops, and only $1 billion is reserved for specialty crops and other commodities, with key details on eligibility, payment and timing still unresolved.

“It’s a challenge with specialty crops to come up with aggregated data across all the more than 300 different commodities, but the American Farm Bureau Federation has done good analysis related to specialty crops,” says Kam Quarles, CEO of the National Potato Council and SCFBA co-chair.

“Effectively Farm Bureau is saying that if you’re going to have a relief plan rollout, specialty crops should be about a third of whatever Congress spits out,” he says.

Word on Capitol Hill is Congress is contemplating a total of $15 billion in assistance, SCFBA says.

“We agree with the one-third of whatever Congress comes up with, but also the package has to be large enough to make a material impact,” Quarles says. “The specialty crop industry has told Congress that we need no less than $5 billion in economic relief for specialty crops in order to positively move the needle for growers.

With food affordability still a top focus for many consumers, what happens to the cost of fruits, vegetables and other grocery staples if specialty crops don’t receive the aid they desperately need?

“We’re facing an unprecedented economic crisis in the U.S. right now for agriculture, and it’s not just specialty crops, it’s broader than that,” Quarles says. “If you have growers that are going out of business due to this economic crisis, that’s going to further impact supplies of commodities. It’s going to impact prices, and it will add to the affordability issue.”

Last week SCFBA joined American Farm Bureau Federation and ag organizations across the U.S. in penning a letter to Congress highlighting record-high input costs, labor shortages, weather challenges and historically low market prices that have caused farmers to face negative margins and nearly $100 billion in losses nationwide.

Reasons for Optimism

Quarles says feedback from both the House and Senate appropriations committees on the specialty crop crisis has been encouraging.

“They absolutely understand where we’re coming from,” he says. “The other thing to remember is that there have been fundamental changes in tax policy that were put into law last summer, and they’ve already started to come online. And when some of the trade agreements that have been discussed are finalized, they also could create a more competitive environment, along with the tax policy.”

But could this be a case of too little, too late?

“These policy recommendations could create a much better environment in the future, but if you’re out of business before you ever get to that better environment, it just doesn’t matter,” Quarles says. “So that’s the imperative of this economic relief; we need a short-term safety net or a bridge, whatever you want to call it, to get producers from this crisis into an area where they can start to take advantage of some of these changes.”

Another bright spot, he says, is how effectively the industry, along with he and his SCFBA co-chairs, including Cathy Burns, CEO of the International Fresh Produce Association; Mike Joyner, president of the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association; and Dave Puglia, president and CEO of Western Growers, are working together.

“The industry has really rallied together under the umbrella of the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance,” Quarles says. “Twenty years ago, this was not the way the industry worked, but the alliance has created a kind of muscle memory, where we know how to all get around the table. We know how to look at a particular situation, develop a strategy, and then everybody disperses out to where they have strengths across the United States.”

“It has really been the best of the fresh produce industry rallying together to try to get some relief for our grower members,” he continues. “I’m very hopeful that we’re going to get something positive done here.”

"The Little Farmer": The Super Bowl Commercial that Captured Hearts and Put the Spotlight on Agriculture

Fri, 14 Feb 2025 21:06:11 GMT

It was a Super Bowl commercial with a story, and one that sprouted from a real potato grower in Wisconsin. Frito Lay and PepsiCo helped put the spotlight on agriculture Super Bowl Sunday, while also celebrating real farmers.

“There’s a lot of pride that goes into growing anything in agriculture, says Jeremie Pavelski, a farmer in Hancock, Wis. , which is located in the central part of the state.

Pavelski is a fifth-generation farmer. The potatoes Pavelski produces go to Lay’s, and it’s something his family has done for 71 years.

“Most of our potatoes are going there specialized for going into potato chips, which is fairly unique,” he says.

The Super Bowl commercial that aired on Sunday was inspired by Pavelski’s story, after he hosted a farm tour for Frito Lay one day.

“They thought that was a great story that needed to be shared, and we weren’t expecting it to be shared on the big stage,” says Pavelski. “But it it was, and it’s a very emotional, very touching commercial. And it’s very rewarding, especially to be working with such great partners.”

The group was especially touched by Pavelski’s 7-year-old daughter, who is passionate abut the potatoes her family produces.

“Seeing my daughter’s eyes light up when she is going out in the middle of the field and teaching her friends where food comes from. And seeing her when she’s got her boots on, splashing around in the mud...and the joy, the delight on her face when she opens a bag of Lay’s and says, ‘I helped grow this’ along with our team, that is one of the most honestly inspirational things,” he says.

Pavelski’s daughter wasn’t the girl who actually appeared in the commercial, but it’s her story that helped the team at Frito Lay dream up an extremely touching commercial, while also helping bring light to the fact those Lay’s potato chips are grown by real farmers on real farms, like Pavelski’s.

“You can see what it took, years of hard work to do and years of learning, whether it’s from the growing side of things or from our daughter and just seeing what ends up becoming of this, and how it can really bring joy to a lot of people. I get a little choked up here, almost brings a tear to my eye,” he says.

One little potato with one big dream was the theme of the commercial. It was also a nod to U.S. family farmers all across the country — families who are the foundation of the food that fuels us all.

Pavelski was named a Top Producer of the Year finalist in 2018. You can read his story here .

Novel Approach Makes Previously Untapped Phosphorus Available To Crops

Thu, 26 Dec 2024 17:38:02 GMT

With its new enzyme mode of action, Phosforce from Koch Agronomic Services is a novel phosphorus nutrient use efficiency product. It aims to make more phosphorus available to the plant during critical growth periods.

“Phosforce builds on our expertise with enzymes, but our previous work focused on nitrogen enzymes. It’s a new concept to bring to phosphorus,” says Tim Laatsch, director of agronomy for Koch Agronomic Services. “It is novel and differentiated in how it leverages natural biology to unlock the soil phosphorus.”

The enzyme in Phosforce is already in the soil but available in limited supply, and application accelerates the biochemical reactions in the soil to tap an previous unused pool of soil phosphorus.

“Phosforce highlights the untapped resource of organic phosphorus that is already in the soil. Only recently has organic phosphorus come to the forefront and we’ve started to understand how much organic phosphorus is in soils,” Laatsch says. “For example, I saw a study with a wide range of soils across Illinois and the samples ranged from 25 lb to 400 lb of organic phosphorus that we could potentially access.”

While phosphorus is relatively immobile in the soil, it’s even harder for the plant to use in cool and wet soil conditions. Making phosphorus available for plant uptake leads to healthy root development, improved vigor, and nutritional balance to overcome early environmental stress.

“In the early growing season, the plants need phosphorus to set a strong root foundation and grow rapidly,” Laatsch says. “Providing access to soil organic phosphorus is important especially during the window of time when the plant needs it the most.”
Laatsch says this is not to be confused with biological products on the market.

“This is a biochemical solution with concentrated enzymes. The end product works by adding enzymes to the soil, but we aren’t reliant on a microbe to survive in the package and then combine with the native biology,” Laatsch says. “We are starting to learn a lot more to unlock the organic phosphorus and be able to access it. You can think of it like phosphorus in your savings account. You can use the enzyme to unlock the savings account and make a withdrawal.”

The application rate for most row crops is 8 fl. oz per acre. Certain crops have higher recommended rates such as potatoes at 20 fl. oz per acre. Phosforce can be applied in furrow, banded (such as a 2x2 placement), at sidedress, in a broadcast application, or with fertigation. It’s active in the soil for up to eight weeks.

Applying additional amounts of the enzyme found in Phosforce augments a traditional phosphorus fertilizer program rather than replaces other phosphorus application rates.
“It doesn’t have to ride with a phosphorus fertilizer—it can go with UAN, ATS blends, and doesn’t necessarily have to ride with a starter,” Laatsch says. “It’s stable in fertilizer blends for three weeks. And it has a two year shelf life.”

Koch Agronomic Services has 10 years of product research data across 150 trials. Those show an average of 5.2 bu. yield response and an overall 81% numeric win rate.
“This product delivers consistent performance,” Laatsch says.

It’s labeled for all crops: row crops, specialty crops like potatoes, tree nuts, vines, turf, and ornamentals.

“All crops need phosphorus when they start growing,” Laatsch says. “So this product unlocks the organic phosphorus using its new mode of action, and it fits well into our nutrient enhancement product lineup.”

The product is available through major U.S. distributors for the 2025 growing season and can be purchased through that channel.

Archive: Syngenta’s New Fungicide for Potatoes

Thu, 22 Sep 2022 02:00:59 GMT

Syngenta announces Archive fungicide, a new option for growers looking to protect their potato crops post-harvest. This fungicide helps combat major storage pathogens in potatoes.

Archive provides robust protection against silver scurf and Fusarium dry rot diseases in potatoes using two modes of action, beginning in the conveyor process before storage.

“Archive is a powerful pre-mix fungicide that will help growers combat the major storage pathogens that threaten their crop,” says Heather Ambuehl, post-harvest lead at Syngenta. “This post-harvest tool is one growers can incorporate into their decay management strategy.”

This broad-spectrum fungicide, now registered for use in potatoes, combines two unique modes of action for more broad-spectrum disease control and built-in resistance management. Fludioxonil and azoxystrobin fungicides deliver proven, robust protection against silver scurf and Fusarium dry rot diseases — pathogens that are of particular concern while potatoes are in storage.

Fludioxonil (FRAC Group 12) is a phenylpyrrole fungicide that provides proven control of some of the most difficult-to-treat storage diseases, such as Fusarium dry rot. Azoxystrobin, a Qol fungicide (FRAC 11), effective against all four classes of fungi, brings another mode of action against Fusarium, and provides control of silver scurf.