Company Profile

Heartland Farms is an irrigated Potato & Vegetable farm operating in five counties of Wisconsin. We currently ship out of four locations including: Almond, Amherst Junction, Hancock, and Spring Green. We are currently farming approximately 14,000 irrigated acres and have been experiencing substantial growth  

The operation is owned entirely by David Knights and Richard Pavelski.  Our largest customer is Frito-Lay Inc.  We also sell potatoes to several regional potato chip manufactures.  Currently in addition to Frito-Lay proprietary varieties we produce Snowden, Atlantic, and Pike. 

We currently ship chipping potatoes from our Wisconsin operation from August through June 15^th.  We have storage capacity for over 3,500,000 Cwt.  (160,000 tonnes)  Shipping capacity is approximately 60 truck loads per day. 

Other crops produced are sweet corn, canning peas, green beans, and soybeans.  All of the vegetable crops are sold to Wisconsin food processors.

The original farm was settled in 1863 by August Pavelski, great grandfather to current president Richard Pavelski when he emigrated from Poland.  We were incorporated as A. M. Pavelski & Sons Inc. in 1974 and Heartland Farms Inc. became the successor in 1990.  The original 80 acre farm was near Amherst Jct. in Portage County and is still being farmed today.  We have experienced rapid growth in the last ten years and have spent over 28 million dollars on capital improvements at our Hancock WI headquarters in the last 8 years.  This is in addition to substantial land acquisitions, and farm equipment purchases.  Richard grew up on the farm and has been active in the business since graduating from Pacelli High School in 1967.  Richard also has prior experience as the President and sole owner of Pavelski Enterprises Inc., one of the largest privately owned agricultural fertilizer and chemical supply operations in the Midwest

In 1979 Dave officially joined the Illinois family corn & Soybean farming operation he grew up on. His family had been running a farming operation in central Illinois since 1863. In response to severe downward economic pressure in the farming industry in Illinois in 1983, Dave went to work for a developing potato farm in central Wisconsin. Three years later, Dave had acquired the skills and experience to become Director of Farming Operations for Colburn Farms and additionally oversaw and implemented the expansion of their farming operations by 1,100 acres in Southeastern Missouri.

Looking for new challenges, Dave formed a partnership with Dick Pavelski to start Heartland Farms in 1990. In the 15 years since inception, Dave has helped steward Heartland Farms through a ten fold increase in acreage. We went from 1,400 acres to the 14,000 with sales in excess of $23 million.
 

Dave’s tenure with Heartland Farms, Inc. has been marked by the use of innovative new technologies and the development of new agronomic and storage protocols for emerging Frito-Lay varieties.

We currently employ approximately 70 full time people and an additional 60 on a seasonal basis.  We also contract with several other potato growers in Portage, Waushara, and Adams Counties to produce potatoes for us.