Across Canada, nearly 122.9 million hundredweight (cwt) of potatoes were harvested last year, with an average national yield of 322.3 cwt/acre on 381,351 acres.

Alberta rose from third into the top spot in 2022, reaping 26.81 million cwt of spuds, up from 24.61 million the year before. The province’s yield came to 375.9 cwt/ac. with 71,325 acres harvested.

In terms of production, Prince Edward Island slipped from first to second at 26.6 million cwt as output eased back from 27.21 million in 2021. Farmers in Canada’s smallest province harvested 81,900 acres, which fetched 324.8 cwt/ac.

Manitoba rounded out the top three at 26.14 million cwt, up from 24.02 million the previous year. The harvest took in 79,250 acres with a yield of 329.8 cwt/ac.

New Brunswick and Quebec were the next productive provinces at 17 million and 14.84 million cwt respectively. In 2021, New Brunswick hauled in 18.2 million cwt and Quebec was 14.1 million. In 2022, the yield in New Brunswick came to 329.5 cwt/ac. and Quebec garnered 312.3.

Ontario was sixth in 2022 at 8.16 million cwt of potatoes on 37,100 acres for a yield of 219.9 cwt/ac. The year before, the province brought in 8.95 million cwt.

As for the rest of Canada in 2022, the potato crop in British Columbia was 1.6 million cwt, along with 1.45 million in Saskatchewan, 240,000 in Nova Scotia and 52,000 in Newfoundland and Labrador. (In a footnote, StatCan said its production numbers for Saskatchewan and Newfoundland are to be used with caution.)

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The P.E.I. Potato Board on Tuesday said the field in question is near to, and is “directly associated” with, a field where the soil-borne disease was found in October.

The field in question was also earmarked to produce potatoes for processing, rather than for seed or table stock — and the potatoes from that field “have been already processed,” the board said.

The soil sampling that turned up the new case was being conducted as part of the investigation of the two cases last fall, the board said, noting the new finding is “no surprise to those who study and manage potato wart.”

Rather, the board said, “this detection shows that the Long-Term Potato Wart Management Plan is correctly identifying fields at risk and implementing the appropriate surveillance and testing measures.”

The new case would be the 35th P.E.I. field with a potato wart detection since October 2000, when the disease was first confirmed in the province.

After a months-long ban on P.E.I. potato exports to the U.S. in 2000, a system was put in place between Canada and the U.S. to allow exports from lower-risk zones where the fungus hasn’t been detected and where the same equipment wasn’t used, as per the federal/provincial long-term plan.

But a request from U.S. plant health officials led Canada in early November to suspend permits for exports of fresh potatoes from Prince Edward Island. The U.S. cited concerns over the two cases found in P.E.I. processing potato fields in October.

Exports of fresh potatoes have since been allowed to resume from P.E.I. to the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, but have not yet resumed to the mainland U.S.

Ottawa in December pledged up to $28 million to help P.E.I. potato producers manage the surplus of potatoes resulting from the U.S. export suspension.

A resulting program, which also includes $12.2 million in provincial funding, was formally launched last month with the goal of “diverting as many potatoes as possible to processors, packers and food banks.”

Where needed, the program will also help P.E.I. potato growers cover the cost of “environmentally-sound destruction of surplus potatoes” at a rate of up to 8.5 cents per pound.

The U.S. in 2020 was by far P.E.I.’s biggest customer for potatoes, taking $476.9 million in fresh or chilled and processed potato goods, or just over 92 per cent of the province’s total potato exports, the province said last fall. Those product categories alone formed almost 84 per cent of the province’s total agricultural and agri-food exports last year.

The potato board reiterated Tuesday that the long-term management plan “has for more than 20 years controlled the movement of potatoes and equipment from regulated fields, mandated comprehensive cleaning and disinfection activities for high-risk fields, and restricted the movement of potatoes from fields under regulation.”

Ongoing surveillance supports that fields outside of the regulated area are free from potato wart, the board said.

“As a result, potato wart has never spread from P.E.I. to anywhere else,” the board said, noting that was confirmed in the results of a national soil survey released in December.

While not considered a human health or food safety risk, potato wart is known to drag down crop yields and can make potatoes unmarketable by ruining their appearance.

The fungal disease appears mainly below-ground, on plants’ tubers and runners. It spreads through movement of affected potatoes, soil, farm equipment and manure from animals that digest infested potatoes. –– Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Monday announced $28 million “to support the diversion of surplus potatoes, including help to redirect surplus potatoes to organizations addressing food insecurity and support for the environmentally-sound disposal of surplus potatoes.”

Past that, the money will also go toward “marketing activities” and to help the province’s potato industry “develop long-term strategies to manage future challenges.”

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada said Monday it will work with the province, the P.E.I. Potato Board, national food bank organizations and “other stakeholder groups” to deliver the funding.

Details on how producers can get support from the new funding envelope will be available “through the coming weeks,” AAFC said.

Canadian export certification for P.E.I. potatoes destined for the U.S. has been suspended since Nov. 22 at the request of U.S. officials, after confirmation of potato wart in two separate P.E.I. processing potato fields on Oct. 1 and 14 respectively.

The two fields were related to previous potato wart detections and were already under regulation, so those fields’ production was at no time destined for the U.S.

Potato wart first turned up in P.E.I. in October 2000 and had since been found in 33 other fields there. After a months-long ban on P.E.I. potato exports to the U.S. in 2000, a system was set up in 2001 to allow exports from lower-risk zones where the fungus hasn’t been detected. That system, dubbed the Potato Wart Domestic Long Term Management Plan, had been in use since then.

The federal government reiterated Monday it “stands firmly on the science that indicates that the risks associated with the transmission of potato wart from fresh potatoes remains negligible when appropriate risk mitigation measures are in place.”

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Monday it will continue to make “science-based data and details of its investigation” into the October cases available to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), and that soil sampling and soil testing processes “are taking place as quickly as possible.”

Describing the suspension as “an incredibly hard time for our province’s potato farmers,” Heath MacDonald, MP for the P.E.I. constituency of Malpeque, said Monday the U.S. nevertheless has “been clear that trade cannot resume until we have worked through their technical concerns.”

Disposal of surplus potatoes — particularly in 2021 — is expected to be difficult at best. Greg Donald, the P.E.I. Potato Board’s general manager, said earlier this month it won’t be possible for the Canadian domestic market alone to eat through the surplus.

“If this goes beyond another week or two, somebody’s going to have to make some tough decisions what to do with the massive volume of potatoes,” Donald said on the Dec. 2 episode of the Between The Rows podcast.

To destroy surplus potatoes during a P.E.I. winter will mean shredding them through equipment such as snowblowers for spreading onto fields as compost, he said.

To leave them in storage beyond the winter, for disposal somehow in the spring, would be “a huge biosecurity issue itself” — and “you can’t dig a hole deep enough” to bury that volume of product.

Typically growing about a quarter of Canada’s potato production annually, P.E.I. was just coming off a record-level year in terms of both yield and quality,

Generally, he said, about 40 per cent of P.E.I.’s fresh potato crop is shipped each year to the U.S., and that level was expected to be higher this year as U.S. domestic production was expected to be down on the year.

‘Potential solutions’

While not considered a human health or food safety risk, potato wart is known to drag down crop yields and can make potatoes unmarketable by ruining their appearance.

The disease appears mainly below-ground, on plants’ tubers and runners. It comes from a soil-borne fungal parasite that spreads through movement of affected potatoes, soil, farm equipment and manure from animals that digest infested potatoes.

Potato wart has never been seen in any other Canadian province except Newfoundland and Labrador, where it’s been under “regulatory control” since 1909.

U.S. officials have said the disease “is not known to be present” in that country; it appeared during the 20th century in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland and was deemed eradicated in all three, lastly in Maryland in 1994.

After the export suspension was imposed last month, the federal and P.E.I. governments and stakeholders set up a Government-Industry Potato Working Group to “exchange information, help mitigate impacts of potato wart on the sector, and identify potential short- and long-term solutions to current trade disruptions.”

AAFC said Monday that Fred Gorrell, a former assistant deputy minister with the department and leader of the federal Market Access Secretariat, has been asked to be the new co-chair of the working group.

Past that, the federal and P.E.I. governments noted Monday they’ve also arranged changes to the AgriStability income stabilization program, allowing late enrolment for any potato growers who hadn’t already signed on for the 2021 program year.

The allowable interim payments available under AgriStability have also been raised, AAFC noted, so producers can apply to receive up to 75 rather than 50 per cent of their anticipated payment.

‘Ineffective action’

The province’s potato growers, meanwhile, took their concerns to the public Monday, organizing a convoy that included 16 potato trucks, carrying an estimated half million pounds of fresh potatoes through Charlottetown.

“We are here to show the federal government, who walked us into this situation, how we’re feeling and the impact their ineffective action is having,” grower John Visser, who chairs the P.E.I. Potato Board, said in a release Monday.

The board said the convoy of potato trucks is also “a statement by farmers of what is to come” as farmers may have to destroy up to 500 million pounds of “healthy, safe potatoes” because of the export ban.

Visser, in the board’s release, noted that growers “appreciate (Monday’s) assistance announcement as a start; however, what’s going to make the most difference to us is a resolution to the border issue, so we can resume trade as soon as possible.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency on Monday announced the suspension of certification for P.E.I. potato exports to the U.S., — a move which, according to federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau, was imposed at the request of U.S. officials on threat of a ban coming from the U.S. side of the border.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Tuesday the suspension followed the confirmation in October of potato wart in two processing-grade potato fields in P.E.I.

“Our risk assessment demonstrated that this action is necessary to protect U.S. potato producers from possible exposure to… potato wart,” Vilsack said at the time.

U.S. officials, he said, would work with CFIA as the Canadian agency “delimit(s) the infestation and trace(s) the sources so that appropriate mitigation measures can be imposed and trade restrictions relaxed.”

The suspension of certification announced Monday applies on table stock potatoes and processing potatoes, but won’t apply to already-processed potatoes, such as frozen products, CFIA has said.

Former federal ag minister Lawrence MacAulay, one of the province’s four members of Parliament, said Tuesday the U.S. had “made clear that they would immediately ban the importation of P.E.I. potatoes if we did not take action.”

The U.S. stance, he wrote on Twitter, “clearly goes beyond what we feel is necessary — indeed, it’s absolutely unfair to our farmers on P.E.I. — but given the reality of the situation, the decision we took is the best way for us to resolve this as quickly as we possibly can.”

“In classic Liberal fashion, this ban was made in the middle of the night, with no consultation, and no plan to support the workers impacted by this decision,” the opposition Conservatives’ agriculture critic John Barlow said in a separate release Wednesday, noting the “lack of details” provided so far to affected potato growers.

Thus, Barlow said, the Conservatives called on the Liberals to “immediately release a plan to support P.E.I. potato farmers and give these workers a date for when the ban will be lifted.”

Barlow took the issue directly to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the House of Commons Thursday, criticizing the government for not consulting the P.E.I. government or affected farmers on the matter and asking him to reverse the “crippling, self-imposed ban.”

Trudeau replied the government is “obviously extremely concerned,” adding he brought up the matter directly with U.S. President Joe Biden the previous week in Washington and the government was working to make clear to U.S. officials that there’s “no scientific basis” for a ban.

In the meantime, imposing a voluntary suspension was meant “to prevent the Americans from bringing in something that would have been much more difficult to reverse,” Trudeau said.

MacAulay, writing on Twitter Tuesday, echoed that statement, adding that “letting the Americans implement their own ban would mean this unfortunate situation would last much longer.”

Speaking Thursday in the Commons, Barlow also chastised the four Liberal MPs representing P.E.I., stating they “haven’t said a single word about this decision.”

P.E.I. Premier Dennis King, in a separate statement Thursday, said he’s “in contact daily with our Island MPs and appreciate their unwavering support for the agriculture industry in Prince Edward Island in fact.”

Those MPs, King said, “are working hard, both here in P.E.I. and in Ottawa with Minister Bibeau as we know that a resolution to this current situation will only be found through a co-ordinated and unified effort.”

Domestic management

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), in a follow-up statement Thursday, cited the detection of potato wart in two separate P.E.I. potato fields last month and “a confirmed detection on a separate P.E.I. farm in 2020.”

Those detections, APHIS said, “indicate that the organism is present in areas not previously known to be infested.”

However, the P.E.I. Potato Board, in a separate statement Tuesday, said the two fields where potato wart was detected last month were already under regulation as part of the Long-Term Potato Wart Domestic Management Plan developed by CFIA — meaning they were already known to be linked to a previously infected field.

That means the potatoes grown on those fields “were already ineligible to be shipped to any market outside of Prince Edward Island, including the United States and Canada,” the board said.

Before last month’s findings, potato wart had appeared in 33 fields in P.E.I. since October 2000. After a months-long ban on P.E.I. potato exports to the U.S., a system was put in place in 2001 allowing exports from lower-risk zones where the fungus hasn’t been detected and where the same equipment wasn’t used.

Under that plan, table and processing potatoes admitted from P.E.I. to the U.S. were also required to be cleaned and treated with sprout inhibitors.

While not considered a human health or food safety risk, potato wart is known to drag on crop yields and can make potatoes unmarketable by ruining their appearance.

The soil-borne disease has never been seen in any other Canadian province except Newfoundland and Labrador, where it’s been under “regulatory control” since 1909.

U.S. officials said this week the disease “is not known to be present in the United States.” The disease was first confirmed in the U.S. in 1918 in Pennsylvania and later in West Virginia and Maryland. It was later deemed eradicated in all three states, the last being Maryland in 1994. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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First grown by the Peruvian Incas, potatoes were transported to the Old World in 1570 by the Spanish Conquistadores as part of the cultural appropriation that accompanied invasion. But the new vegetables were reviled by Europeans fearful of their nightshade family tree, with cousins including eggplant and tomatoes, but also deadly mandrake and belladonna, and so were grown initially as animal fodder.

It took advocates like Antoine-August Parmentier to make spuds acceptable. Parmentier was a socially conscious chef and medical officer who also enforced smallpox vaccination among Napoleon’s troops. He became a staunch advocate for potatoes after he survived on them in a Prussian prison camp during the Seven Years War (1756-63). He later planted potatoes on his estates near Paris; to create potato prestige, he posted guards during the day, but removed the guards nightly so Parisians could “steal” the plants to grow in their own gardens. His influence endures in French dishes bearing his name as indicators that they contain potatoes. In an ironic moment of food history, in the aftermath of the French Revolution, the royal gardens, the Tuileries, were converted to potato fields.

Potatoes migrated to North America in the 1770s. American inventor Ben Franklin attended a “potato feast” cooked by Parmentier for the French king, Louis XIV, who wore a potato flower boutonniere. Franklin subsequently carried seed potatoes home. His colleague, Thomas Jefferson, served as American Minister to France, and one of his slaves, James Hemings, studied to be a chef while they were in Paris. Later, at the White House, Hemings served finely cut potato pieces cooked in hot oil and — voila! — french fries.

It’s amazing that the potato is even eaten in Ireland after the Potato Famine of 1845-51. At that point, Irish Catholics could not own or lease land, so were reduced to tenant farmers and poverty, eating one variety of potato, the Lumper; the Corn Laws made wheat unaffordable, and dairy, fish and cattle were exported en masse to England. But an ecological disaster made a bad situation worse. A plant pathogen, Phytophthora infestans, wiped out the Lumper crop, turning tasty taters into rotting slime. A million Irish died of starvation and a million more fled, mostly for the New World. Thus my potato-loving paternal ancestors became settlers in what would be known as Treaty 3 Territory, the Between the Lakes Territory, Upper Canada, or southern Ontario.

In what became known as Alberta, Daniel Harman, agent for the North West Company, mentioned in his journals the harvest of the first potatoes seeded in 1810 near Dunvegan. Forty-three years later, the potato chip was invented in Saratoga Springs, New York. A chef, George Crum, irked when railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt sent back his potatoes for more cooking, thinly sliced the offending potatoes, fried them in oil, and sprinkled the resulting chips with salt. Vanderbilt loved them, triggering our continuing affair with potato chips.

But potatoes have better uses than chips. As my feisty Irish granny was fond of saying, spuds are best served plain, with a few added ingredients — hence latkes, boxty, pommes Anna, or champ. So first we eat, then we’ll swap recipes.

Hedgehog Potatoes

This is one of those deceptive dishes that elevate its few ingredients. It’s also good for practising your knife skills. Choose uniform oval potatoes — yellow fleshed are best — of similar size. Make extra! These reheat well, uncovered, in a medium-hot oven. Serves 6.

• 6 potatoes
• 2 heads of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Chopped chives for garnish
• Sour cream for garnish

Set the oven at 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut off a thin slice of each potato to make a flat surface. Set the potato on its flat side and use a large sharp knife to make parallel cuts across the potato at regular intervals. Do not cut all the way through. Insert a garlic slice into each cut. Repeat with the rest of the potatoes. Transfer the potatoes to the baking sheet. Drizzle with oil, then season with salt and pepper. Bake for an hour, more if needed, basting at intervals. Serve with garnishes.

The post Who doesn’t love spuds? appeared first on Grainews.

Who are plant medicine specialists? They connect shape, design and texture of certain vegetables, fruit, flowers, herbs, leaves and root crops as potential healers to specific parts of the human body. Take for example a chunk of sliced carrot — those interior core circles might suggest the design of an eye. There’s no doubt that kidney beans hold a long reputation for nourishing the kidneys. If an expectant mother eats an avocado at least once weekly and drinks strawberry leaf tea, research indicates it helps balance her hormones and can contribute to an easier delivery. It takes an avocado nine months to grow to maturity. Coincidence? Who’s to know?

There’s also a similar trend in floral essences. Mandevilla flowers release an attachment to something that’s become a habit. Upon looking at the plant’s tendrils, notice how the floral vines wrap around and attach to anything in proximity. Euphrasia or eyebright flowers look a bit like eyes with long eyelashes and are known for being one of the best remedies for some eye conditions. Leaves on that old cottage perennial hollyhock are soft and fuzzy to the touch, indicating that they are good for soothing and healing when applied on the skin whether to scrapes, cuts or rashes.

As for the men in our Grainews readership audience, let the following be known, depending on your stature and weight. A walnut in the shell, or an avocado pit are about the same size as a man’s normal functioning prostate. So guys, besides your daily serving of tomatoes, add avocado and walnuts too. The interior meat of a walnut reminds us of a human brain. Nutrients in the edible portion of walnuts are said to help develop and maintain at least three dozen different neurotransmitters in the thought processes. I can’t pass up the opportunity to remind all of us that spuds — when baked, steamed or boiled rather than fried — contain compounds called kukoamines that lower high blood pressure. A reminder too that lycopene in tomatoes contributes to both prostate and breast health. Yes — there are many reasons to grow as much of our own fresh food in season as possible.

Periodically I still wear the same original Tilley hat that I purchased at least 25 years ago. Here’s the familiar caricature of that same hat tipped from the brim with its familiar welcome to all. Carry on with me right through to the closing tag.

Cerisa gourmet potato

I’m expanding on the goodness of potatoes in the diet beyond what was mentioned briefly during my opening. But first, let me tell you why I’m growing Cerisa this year and why you, the home potato gardener may want to do so also.

This is a favourite European variety and for good reason. Cerisa is a gourmet yellow-fleshed, red-skin, specialty-type potato with slightly firmer cooking texture and excellent flavour. Kind of makes it an ideal choice for potato salads, wouldn’t you say? Cerisa produces very high numbers of smaller elongated baby potatoes and grows well in gardens, raised beds and containers alike. Cerisa is a second early-maturing variety and has moderate resistance to common scab.

Cerisa seed for planting is available at Peavey Mart, or shop online for Cerisa and other seed potato varieties such as Gemson, Goldeye, Little Giant, Jazzy, Rosemarie and Purple Magic at earthapples.com/shop/ or contact the following:

Phil Bakker
Director of Sales & Marketing
Ph. 780-996-0707
phil@earthapples.com
www.earthapples.com

A little-known baked potato method

Have you ever heard of Swedish baked potatoes? I have! The method involves slicing a raw potato into sections about one-quarter inch thin all the way across the top but not right through to the bottom so that each potato slice still holds together while baking.

Chris the Accordion Guy plays a lot of accordion music both locally and on tour. Each time the bellows on his Brandoni are just slightly ajar I think of the accordion as inspiring the design. I’ve acquired a preference for the style of preparation described and call it “Bellows Baked Potatoes.” Get the idea? The sky’s the limit for what you can put between the baked potato sections ranging from seasonings to toppings. By the way, for inquiries and bookings — Chris the Accordion Guy can be reached by phone at 204-871-4949. Chris will soon be in Saskatoon and vicinity playing accordion from mid-May to mid-July. Seniors to kids love the versatility of what he pumps out through the bellows of his 120 bass accordion.

Brief recap of some nutrients in spuds

When people think “potato,” they think of starch and carbohydrates. So says a plant geneticist. But actual research shows that potatoes can actually be packed with phenolic compounds which have a wide range of health-promoting properties, including antioxidant activity. The following are only a few details.

Vitamin B6 a.k.a. pyridoxine helps the body produce small molecules that facilitate communication between networks of nerve cells, as well as between your nerves and muscles. B6 also contributes to the synthesis of melatonin, a brain hormone that helps maintain your natural internal clock and sleep cycle. Potatoes are also a source of some vitamin C and our body requires it daily as it’s not stored. Vitamin C correlates with decreased risk of some types of cancer and high levels of this essential nutrient in the human system reduce the risk of stroke, according to the Linus Pauling Institute, so don’t neglect vitamin C.

Then there’s the essential mineral known as manganese whose function is to get enough enzymes to carry out chemical reactions required for survival. We often hear the expression, “eat a banana for potassium.” Well wouldn’t it be time to tell the world that potatoes also contain a significant amount of essential potassium that facilitates muscle contraction, supports function of the nervous system, aids in energy production and helps maintain your body’s fluid balance? Steamed new potatoes, which can be any type of small red potatoes in particular, are low in calories, high in fibre and play an important role in a balanced, healthy diet.

Grainews gardeners get the last word

From a thank-you card received — Mrs. Mary Ellen Pakka from Sorrento, B.C. writes: “We share a pasture (range) with our neighbours from May to October. The last two years we had to buy feed as we don’t have irrigation. My son raises Hereford cattle. White Lake was originally a Finnish settlement. Most of the first settlers are gone now. I live on the original homestead on a very small farm near Salmon Arm in the log house built in 1910 or so.” — Good to hear from you Mary. I, Ted had an Uncle Bill who once lived in Salmon Arm years ago. Not sure whether he’s buried there or not.

Joyce Nykipilo writes from Boyle, Alberta: “I would like to thank you for drawing my name and am excited to try these seeds. Keep up the wonderful and interesting news in your section of Grainews. I would like to know more about this tomato.” Here we go. Cosmonaut Volkov is an old Ukrainian heirloom tomato that was named in honour of a Russian cosmonaut who died while returning from a space mission.

Its fruiting capacity excites every tomato grower who’s planted it and is highly recommended. Medium- to large-size red fruits have a delicious, tangy flavour. Fruit production continues right through until a killing frost. Here’s a bonus too. Cosmonaut Volkov also produces well even under cool-weather growing conditions. This indeterminate variety requires staking and fruits begin to ripen between 65 to 70 days from transplant time out into the garden.

The post Singing Gardener: Nutritional benefits of the potato and a little-known way of baking it appeared first on Grainews.

These investments have helped them gain recognition as innovators in their industry and earn them the title of 2018 Outstanding Young Farmers for the Atlantic region.

The farm, located near Glassville in west-central New Brunswick not far from the border with Maine, produces high quality seed potatoes along with soybeans and oats in rotation. They also under seed crops with rye grass and red clover as a plough down prior to the potato crop.

Anderson, 39, has continued the environmental stewardship work that his dad began on the farm, terracing a lot of the rolling fields, installing tile drainage and contour ploughing to help control erosion and build soil organic matter. They have also reforested 3,000 acres of woodland on the property.

Computers do the work

The biggest changes have come with the introduction of GPS systems to help track and manage just about everything going on in the field. And on the processing end, new Shaker Sizer sorting equipment can sort the seed potatoes into different sizes to meet the needs of different customers.

They have also invested in two new potato storage facilities supported by computerized storage management systems. Part of the system involves a new spin on old cooling technology — ice blocks. The modern version involves styrofoam blocks with a concrete core that help prevent temperature fluctuations in the potato pile.

It’s all paid off, says Anderson, saving him a lot of time and allowing him to provide a better quality product. “We let the computers do the work, they maintain temperature, which helps keep the physiological age of the potatoes very young so the grower next year has a strong, healthy seed tuber to start their crop,” he says. “One of the biggest things that’s changed my business in the last five years is being able to improve the quality product that I’m putting out the door.”

With regard to the OYF award Anderson appreciates people have noticed the work accomplished and being recognized by others in the industry that have similar outlooks. “It’s always nice to have forward thinkers in your network that you can call if you have a question or for ideas,” he says.

Not a lot of spare time

The days are sometimes longer than Anderson and Ebbett would like. Along with farm work, Robert is also involved with New Brunswick Potato Technology Initiative Board, Jill has a full-time job with McCain Foods as Customer Service Manager for Domestic and Export and they are also busy raising four children aged three to seven.

Anderson’s plan going forward is to keep expanding, but an ongoing challenge will be sourcing adequate labour. “When you get a great team and you have got good people with you, it’s no problem to grow and expand and look forward all the time,” he says. “But it can be difficult to find good people when you’re looking to fill vacancies or expand the work force. But my wife and I are building a legacy; we have worked hard and are respected in our industry, and we hope to keep growing.”

The post Canada’s OYF: Atlantic nominees appeared first on Grainews.

Wireworm, which is the larval stage of the adult click beetle, affects many crops, including cereals and pulses, but they are particularly damaging to potatoes. Holes created by wireworms can render tubers unmarketable and serve as points of entry for potato pathogens.

This pest has remarkable staying power in fields due to its long life cycle — up to five years, longer than most producers’ rotations — and ability to thrive on so many hosts.

And it’s hard to pin down due to the sheer number of its species across Canada — around 30, each of which might behave differently.

Few chemical controls are available across Canada. Following the deregistration of lindane several years ago, many producers turned to neonicotinoid seed treatments. But neonics don’t kill wireworms, they just keep them from feeding on plants for a time, says John Gavlovski, Manitoba’s provincial entomologist, meaning they can return and feed on tubers later in the growing season.

And as neonicotinoids are under review with Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency, this option might soon be taken off the table.

One option for control is Thimet 200G, an organophosphate systemic insecticide. But Thimet 200G is restricted, meaning producers who want to use it have to complete a certification and licensing requirement, says Vikram Bisht, Manitoba’s potato and horticultural crops pathologist. Manitoba producers have all but ceased using it, he says.

“The processing industry here is having increasing concerns about wireworm,” says Bisht.

Currently no large-scale monitoring projects are planned in Manitoba but Bisht says it’s on industry’s radar. “Unlike PEI, we don’t have those high populations, but it’s still a growing concern to many of our growers and the processing industry,” he says.

Gavlovski says a multi-year project out of Brandon University is set to begin in 2018 to measure the effectiveness of tests used for monitoring wireworm populations.

Creative controls

With the lack of available chemical controls, some Canadian potato growers are turning to innovative mechanical solutions.

Christine Noronha, an Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada researcher based in Charlottetown, PEI, says many eastern Canadian producers aren’t using any chemical controls for wireworm.

“I don’t know if it’s on the increase or not in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, but more people are calling to ask what to do about it,” she says. “It creeps up on producers because the population increases exponentially, because the pest has a five-year life cycle. That’s what growers are seeing in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. But it’s not at the levels we have here on the island.”

Noronha invented the Noronha Elaterid Light Trap (NELT), a pitfall trap that uses light to attract male and female click beetles. Originally designed as a monitoring tool, the trap can also be used for population control.

“In PEI we’re catching a lot of females using the trap,” says Noronha. “If you catch them early enough you take away egg-laying females. So over time you can reduce the load of females in fields. I’m trying to figure out a way that growers can use it because you cannot mass trap in fields.”

Last year the trap was commercialized by a company called Growing Forward Solutions on PEI. Producers anywhere in Canada can order their own. It hasn’t yet been tested on western Canadian click beetle species, but Noronha says she invites producers to collaborate with her on testing the trap.

“I’m more than willing to go out there, show it to them and put it out in their fields. They just have to call me,” she says.

Noronha recommends a four-point strategy for wireworm control:

1. Monitoring for adults and larvae to get a sense of population levels;
2. Using a good rotation before potatoes;
3. Trapping every year regardless of crops planted; and,
4. Using insecticide during potato years.

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Now the zebra chip pathogen has been found for the first time in Western Canada.

To be clear, explains University of Lethbridge professor Dan Johnson, who headed the Canadian potato psyllid and zebra chip monitoring network, zebra chip has not yet begun to affect potato production in Canada. So far, Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum (Lso), the zebra chip pathogen, has been detected in small numbers of potato psyllids — the pathogen’s insect vector — in Alberta. But the pathogen has not yet been found in any potato plant tissue.

• Read more: Beetle-resistant potato varieties

“There’s no infection of potatoes and no symptoms. So there’s no zebra chip yet, which is good news. But it’s likely to turn up,” he says. “Depending on the weather and other factors it’s possible that a tiny portion of the bug will continue to carry the pathogen and not transmit it. That’s a possibility. But to be realistic, eventually it caught up with the crop in other places.”

The pathogen was found in 2017, the final year of a five-year research and monitoring program mostly concentrated in southern Alberta, where most processing potatoes are grown in the province.

Johnson says potato psyllids had not been found in Canada until the program started. Small numbers of potato psyllids were found in increasing numbers in Alberta between 2015 and 2017. The insect was also found for the first time in Saskatchewan and Manitoba in 2016. No potato psyllids have been found east of Manitoba — so far.

Not all potato psyllids carry Lso, says Johnson, but insects captured by the team in separate sites have tested positive for the pathogen, which may mean there’s a “widespread incidence of Lso at a very low level.”

The pathogen was detected and identified by Larry Kawchuk, a pathologist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Lethbridge Research and Development Centre.

Management

Johnson’s monitoring project has not been renewed, but the discovery of the zebra chip pathogen is a game-changer for the industry. A new five-year monitoring program is being planned by the Potato Growers of Alberta (PGA) in partnership with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, Promax Agronomy and other industry partners, says Thomas McDade, agricultural director at PGA.

The program will be “a very active surveillance monitoring system that will be used to help potato growers make quick and timely decisions on when to, and when not to, take preventative action,” says McDade.

Its initial focus will be on tracking potato psyllid numbers, as well as numbers of the insect’s natural predators.

The latter are actually an important control, says Johnson. “In a potato field there’s so much diversity, and many of these insects are potential natural enemies of the potato psyllid.”

For example, during the survey Johnson’s team found a lot of species of ladybird beetles, which “demolish” immature psyllids. “If by luck or by management producers can hold off the insecticides a bit, those natural enemies can be a buffer,” he says.

In Alberta, due to the absence of high numbers of Colorado potato beetle in recent years, producers are only spot-spraying for the insect pest, which has allowed beneficial insects to establish reasonable populations.

Going forward, potato producers across Western Canada should learn to recognize potato psyllids at all life stages. Johnson says the eggs and immature stages of the insect are distinctive and can be spotted on the undersides of leaves. Newly emerged adults are white or yellow and after several hours they darken to display sculptured lines on the thorax and head and white stripes on the abdomen.

If producers suspect they’ve captured potato psyllids they should contact provincial potato associations or agriculture departments and get the insects tested for Lso.

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The Grimme brand harvesters are generally smaller in capacity than their Spudnik cousins and until now have been better suited to European growers’ needs. But at a field day in Germany in September, the company debuted a larger model, the EVO 290. With consumer preferences changing and specialty potatoes gaining a larger market share at supermarkets, Grimme marketing staff thinks the EVO 290 could be a good fit for Canadian growers who want to take advantage of those new variety opportunities in the evolving North American retail food market.

The new EVO 290 builds on the same basic design as the existing SE 260, which was introduced in 2012, but it adds capacity and includes some updates. For example, the 290 pushes bunker capacity to nine tonnes from six on the 260, and it rides on three wheels instead of two to reduce soil compaction. The EVO 290 uses some mechanical drive systems to reduce horsepower requirements, but it also includes several hydraulically driven components that allow for speed adjustments and reversing when a component plugs up.

An optional 5.5 tonne “non-stop” bunker is available, which relies on a moving floor system for more efficient use of on-board storage capacity and allows for non-stop harvesting. The brand claims this feature can increase capacity by another 20 per cent over a conventional bunker.

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