Risk & Business Magazine F.A. Peabody Insurance Fall 2016 | Page 28

Bob Bartlett sitting amongst Massey Harris tractors

Bartlett Farms
Unearthing A Niche

I

n 1958, Bob Bartlett had just turned
17 years old and was a senior in
high school. He had not learned
the meaning of “You can’t do that”;
therefore, he talked a wealthy fellow
in Houlton into backing him in the
farming business. His grandfather had
an old International tractor and planter
and allowed Bob to plant on 40 acres of
his land. Bob had to work extremely hard
that spring as he planted those 40 acres of
potatoes. He went back and forth between
school and work sometimes working as
late as 1:00 am and making it to school the
next day.

A year later, he rented a farm from a Mr.
Buckingham which he soon purchased.
This time, he borrowed $10,000.00 from a
well to do uncle to buy the farm. He credits

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FALL 2016

Charlie Woods, his high school agriculture
teacher, for an excellent education in
agriculture. His new farm added to his
grandfather’s farm, now gave him 70 to 80
acres of tillable ground and Bob was on his
way.

farm, and have been since 1985, one of the
worst years ever for potato farming. That
was the year that Bob told David that he
would have to be a partner with him, since
he “could not afford to lose that much
money on his own”.

1965 was a terrific year for farming; both
potatoes and oats were going for high
prices which allowed Bob to clean up all his
debts from land and equipment purchases.
Today, Bob farms a total of 600 acres made
up of different farms purchased over the
years, now totaling 300 +/- acres of owned
land and the balance rented land.

Bob and David are involved in niche
farming of specialty seed potatoes. The
seed potatoes they grow today for farmers
all along the east coast are comprised of
unfamiliar names in this area. Potato
varieties such as Red Lasota, Keuka Gold
and Wanetas are a few of the unique
varieties that Bartlett Farms specializes
in for seed potatoes for use in growing
both chip and table stock. He also grows
a small potato variety known as red and
yellow fingerlings that are too small to be
dug with a regular potato digger and are

Another pivotal year for Bob’s farming
enterprise was 1980; in that year he
became a seed potato farmer and has been
growing seed potatoes ever since. Today,
Bob and his son, David, are partners in the