Today, the plant has two shifts working, employing between 400 and 500 people, Ring said. The crop also has produced benefits in the fields. It fits well as a rotation crop with potatoes, Ring said. Rotation crops are used to break disease cycles in fields and to diversify a farm's production. Corn pays good money and, almost as importantly, guaranteed money, Clough said.
Growers plant sweet corn under contract.
They generally can bank on a paycheck at the end of the season - a luxury unknown to farmers who play the open market in other commodities. And the migration of sweet corn to the Mid-Columbia has affected traditional cropping patterns west of the mountains as well. Clough has a good idea of what's growing in its place. Copyright 1997 Tri-City Herald. All rights reserved.