Specifically, they’re concerned about the number of available water licences, which allow the irrigation-reliant industry to draw from surface or groundwater.

Dan Sawatzky, manager of the Keystone Potato Producers Association, says aquifer access is “basically fully allocated,” as are the minor streams some producers use to refill reservoirs.

Why it matters: Water access is becoming a limiting factor for the potato sector.

“There’s a little bit left, possibly, on the Assiniboine River, but we’re looking to see whether there’s any possibility to increase water licensing on some of the bodies that we currently do use,” he said.

The issue was particularly acute in 2021, when low spring runoff carried over into widespread drought. Irrigation reservoirs did not fully recharge and many rivers and streams dropped alarmingly low.

The association is awaiting results from a University of Manitoba study examining recharge in the Assiniboine Delta Aquifer. That study is entering its fifth and final year.

“The aquifer licensing was allocated back a number of years ago,” Sawatzky said. “They were very, very conservative in what they were licensing and we want a review of that to see whether there’s any possibility of increasing some outflow.”

Provincial regulations require individuals and companies to have a licence for uses over 25,000 litres a day.

Licences are “issued for a time period appropriate for the situation to a maximum of 20 years, and may be renewed upon application,” according to the Government of Manitoba website.

The potato association would like local producers to be able to supply more to the province’s major processing plants, J.R. Simplot and McCain Foods. Sawatzky noted those companies now source out-of-province spuds.

The province is aware of the University of Manitoba study, he said, adding, “they have been quite helpful as well in providing data to see that study through.

“We’ll see where that goes when it’s done and see what the province decides to do with it.”

Precious H20

There is also the matter of the province’s new water strategy, released in December 2022. Water conservation was one of its key messages, along with quality and quantity of groundwater, water infrastructure, better data collection, Indigenous participation and ecological measures.

At the time, the province emphasized the need for climate resiliency in water use and the need to adapt to swings between flood and drought.

The potato and vegetable industries were part of strategy talks. Peak of the Market CEO Pamela Kolochuk stressed the need for clarity on water rights and water availability during consultations, the Co-operator reported at the time.

The post Potato water in Manitoba running short  appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Guarded optimism would be the best way to describe growers’ mood as they prepare for the 2021 crop amid weather and market conditions largely beyond their control.

“You have to be resilient to be a potato grower,” said Dan Sawatzky, general manager of Keystone Potato Producers Association. “You have to be optimistic or you wouldn’t be in the business. But with three (challenging) years back to back, the mood is — what’s the right word — certainly not as optimistic. Maybe cautiously optimistic going into this year. Maybe somewhat subdued as well.”

Manitoba growers’ string of misfortune began in 2018 when an early frost left 4,000 acres of potatoes in the ground. Another 5,000 acres’ worth of tubers were touched by frost, spoiled in sheds and had to be removed.

Bad as 2018 was, 2019 was worse. The weather turned ugly in fall and unrelenting rains during harvest season, followed by frost, left 13,000 acres unharvested and produced more breakdown in storage than normal.

Although 2020 did not experience adverse harvest conditions, the crop got off to a late start when wet fields from the previous fall delayed seeding. Then came a heat wave lasting several weeks in July, causing potato plants to shut down and stop advancing. Another hot spell arrived in August just as tubers were starting to bulk. As a result, yields for 2020 were 15 per cent short of expected.

Sawatzky said Manitoba processors were forced to import potatoes during all three years to make up for shortfalls. As of this spring, seed potato supplies were “very tight.”

Also this spring, soil conditions in parts of agro-Manitoba were very dry after a winter with limited snowfall and sparse spring run-off. Water levels in surface reservoirs were very low in March, making supplies look “rather bleak” without spring rains, Sawatzky said.

On top of everything else, the COVID-19 pandemic threw a wrench into potato markets in 2020 after fast-food restaurants were forced to close their eat-in spaces and only drive-through orders were allowed. Processing potatoes took a severe hit with french fry sales dropping 40 per cent initially, said Kevin MacIsaac, general manager of United Potato Growers of Canada.

Bright spot

But the pandemic actually provided a silver lining for table potatoes as socially isolated homemakers rediscovered home cooking. At one point last year, retail sales of fresh potatoes were running 35 per cent above the previous year, MacIsaac said.

Today, with COVID vaccinations becoming widespread, prospects for french fries are improving. As of March, french fry sales were nearly back to pre-pandemic levels, according to MacIsaac.

“If restaurants continue to stay open at an even greater level, we should be able to increase our sales of french fries to what the industry was doing before COVID came along,” he said by phone from Charlottetown. “We still have some uncertainties hanging over our heads that we don’t have answers for in terms of demand and restaurants going back to being completely open, that kind of thing. But based on what we know today, I’m quite optimistic.”

MacIsaac said planted potato acreage in Canada last year was down 5,000 acres from the previous year because COVID was taking hold right at planting time. Processors saw their volumes reduced and were forced to cut back supplies from growers.

But MacIsaac predicted plantings will recover in 2021.

“I see it rebounding by at least 5,000 acres to where we were and I think slightly above that.”

Canadian potato plantings totalled 357,085 acres in 2020. Manitoba growers planted 71,500 acres, second only to Prince Edward Island with 83,600 acres.

Sawatzky said growers this year were hoping for price increases from Simplot and McCain, Manitoba’s two potato processors, to help compensate for previous reduced yields. Contract negotiations in March were still at an early stage.

Manitoba growers applied in 2018 for financial assistance from Agri-Recovery because of their crop disaster that year. Sawatzky said producers tried to continue their claim in 2019 but the provincial government was unwilling to participate, so they are not pursuing it now.

Despite challenges, there are still farmers who want to grow potatoes. Sawatzky said the Manitoba industry currently has 59 processing farms, an increase of eight over the last two years.

Vikram Bisht, a Manitoba Agriculture plant pathologist, said plant diseases were not expected to be a major issue in potato crops this year, although it was still much too early to tell. He said verticillium wilt was a problem last year, with some fields showing a 20 per cent infection rate.

Manitoba runs an early-warning system for potato crops with a network of weather forecasting stations, as well as a network for trapping late blight spores. If spore levels are high, producers may decide to spray crops with fungicides to combat the disease.

The post Manitoba potato growers look for brighter 2021 appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

It has not been the case for the last two years. Producers were forced to abandon a significant portion of their crop in both 2018 and 2019 due to wet falls and damage from frost. Last year, the Keystone Potato Producers Association estimated that 12,000 acres went unharvested, up from 5,200 acres the previous year, and another 1,000 acres were dug with severe frost damage.

Why it matters: Potato yields are down, but producers also got a break from the harvest issues they’ve been fighting for the last two years.

Dan Sawatzky, manager of the Keystone Potato Producers Association, says 2020 yields have been mixed, although the harvest has also dodged those weather issues from last year.

“Some are close to what they were anticipating or expecting, but the majority of them will be short, will be down,” he said. “We had a late spring, a late start, and we had some heat during the early part of July as well as the third week of August that was just too hot for potatoes to continue with their development.”

Some yields may be down as much as 15 per cent, he estimated.

About 95 per cent of the province’s 70,000 potato acres were harvested as of Oct. 6, according to the weekly provincial crop report. Near the same time last year, the province was reporting only 40-60 per cent of commercial potato harvest complete in central Manitoba. That number then hit yet another wall when an early blizzard dropped up to 75 centimetres of snow in parts of the province over the Thanksgiving weekend.

This year, Sawatzky says the industry may have set speed records, even if yields have fallen shy.

“The weather was very, very good and (it was a) very efficient harvest,” he said.

Processing potato harvest was complete, to his knowledge, although some table potatoes may have still been in the ground as of the first week of October as producers waited for skin to set.

This year’s crop has dodged quality issues that initially had Sawatzky concerned. There have been no widespread reports of tuber size issues, despite worries that the late spring might cause a glut of smaller potatoes.

Gravity, however, may be lower than hoped, he added, something he also linked to the shorter growing season.

“Generally, I think they’ll store well,” he said. “They were put into storage in good shape.”

That in itself is a win over the last two years. In 2018 and 2019, large quantities of potatoes went into storage frost damaged or otherwise compromised from sitting in saturated soil. The sector reported widespread spoilage worries and producers fighting patches of rot in storage.

Last year, the potato sector had been expecting record yields prior to the weather issues.

“To have the yield down a bit this year certainly is disappointing,” Sawatzky said. “But to have them in the bin and not frozen in the ground in the field is quite a relief.”

Market

Demand for processing potatoes turned volatile this year with the sudden hit of COVID-19 shutting restaurants and event centres such as stadiums.

This spring, both McCain Foods and J.R. Simplot, the province’s two main potato processors, said they would cut contracted acres. Manitoba potato growers reported contract cuts anywhere from nine to 16 per cent, depending on company.

It was a far cry from the supply situation producers had expected to be in. Following harvest challenges in 2018 and 2019, processors had been bringing in extra potatoes from Alberta and the United States to make up for the gap in harvest.

Those shipments stopped in March and April, thanks to impacts from COVID-19, Sawatzky said.

“One of the companies here was not sure that they would be able to use what was left in growers’ storages, the inventory that was left, and weren’t even sure how the growers would get paid,” he said. “They were encouraging growers to find other places to market these or dispose of them. It certainly was a huge concern.”

At the time, Manitoba actually hoped to fare better than other regions, since the hit to harvest also meant less surplus to worry about.

By the time tractors hit the field, however, some of that impact had rebounded.

“Those cuts weren’t as deep as anticipated,” Sawatzky said, noting about 1,500 extra acres of processing potatoes actually went in the ground.

“Which didn’t happen in other jurisdictions,” he noted.

While COVID-19 is still making for uncertainty in food-service demand, Sawatzky is not expecting the level of shutdowns seen earlier in the pandemic.

“Currently, the demand is strong,” he said.

Potato crops in eastern maritime states and Atlantic Canada are suffering from dry conditions, while U.S. states such as North Dakota, Idaho, Oregon and Washington are expecting a “reasonable” crop, Sawatzky said.

“There possibly will be a little bit of extra there as well to make up for the shortfall here, as well as the eastern part of the country,” he said.

A Sept. 18 report from the United Potato Growers of Canada estimated that Canadian production (including table potatoes) could fall short by at least six million hundredweight, driven largely by a 15 to 25 per cent yield drop in Prince Edward Island.

The group expects processing potato yields in Alberta and Manitoba to fall to their lowest levels since 2011.

“In addition, fryers were already playing catch-up to a market demand radically reduced by COVID-19 in the spring and then coming back sooner than expected this summer,” the report read. “Unfortunately, this occurred after raw product had moved to other channels and contracted volume for the 2020 crop was reduced across North America.”

It’s yet to be seen how those market conditions will impact the next round of contract negotiations.

The post Smooth harvest, but short yield for potato growers appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

According to multiple industry sources, McCain Foods has dropped 16 per cent of acres from its contracts with Manitoba farmers, while Simplot has also made smaller cuts from its agreements.

Why it matters: As demands shrinks, less processing potatoes will go into the ground this year, as well as sending up a cloud of uncertainty for seed potato growers.

North America’s potato industries have taken a big hit from the COVID-19 pandemic. Lockdown of restaurant dining rooms, bars and other food-service locations have sent demand for products like french fries or hash browns, and therefore, potato consumption among processors like McCain and Simplot, into a nose-dive.

In an April 24 release, the United Potato Growers of Canada estimated processor cuts could range from 15 to 30 per cent compared to last year, while demand for table potatoes could dip 10 to 15 per cent, both from lower food-service sector demand and from some of those orphaned processing potatoes flowing into the table market.

Manitoba producers were expecting a boost in acres in 2020. Impacts of the pandemic come soon after major producer Simplot was expected to ramp up production. In 2018, the company announced a $460-million plant expansion at Portage la Prairie. Potato growers this year were expecting to queue up additional acres to feed the expanded plant.

Neither McCain Foods nor Simplot responded to requests for comment.

Dan Sawatzky, manager of the Keystone Potato Producers Association, said that the downturn has hit producers already reeling from a hard harvest last year.

The Keystone Potato Producers Association estimated that 12,000 acres of potatoes were left unharvested last year thanks to wet weather and early snow, while 1,000 acres were harvested with frost damage. The potato sector later reported storage losses due to potatoes harvested under poor conditions.

“Some producers are finished their deliveries — they may have had some issues where potatoes had to be moved early — while others are sitting on most of the crop still from last year,” Sawatzky said.

Some of those producers left with most of their 2019 crop are also those who struggled to bring crop in last fall, he added, although producers fighting storage issues may have been forced to move potatoes earlier.

“They may have only harvested half the crop, but that half of the crop is still sitting in their sheds,” he said. “It’s certainly a huge concern as to how things will all pan out in the end.”

Sawatzky estimates that up to a third of the 2019 potatoes still stored by producers may not be processed. Some of those potatoes may go into cattle feed, he noted, “but a lot of it may have to be thrown out.”

The downturn has come as an abrupt shift from expected demand for Manitoba potatoes. In fall 2019, the sector noted the second straight year of reduced yield, thanks to poor weather. In 2018, processors in Manitoba were forced to ship potatoes from out of province when producers were unable to harvest expected volumes. Harvests were similarly down last year.

“The processing crop, we went from being short to being long in a two-week period, it was really strange,” Russell Jonk of Swansfleet Alliance said.

Seed potato surplus

Cuts to contracted acres have also left producers with an unexpected surplus of seed. Seed supplies were initially expected to be tight this year, following the last two years of challenging falls.

Some producers already had their seed potatoes delivered when cuts were announced, Sawatzky noted.

“Those growers who had their seed home won’t be able to find a market for that seed, as well as the seed that was still sitting in the seed growers’ premises,” he said. “Of course, that seed won’t move anywhere either.”

Jonk, also the president of the Manitoba Seed Potato Growers Association, says it is not yet clear how large the seed potato surplus in the province will be.

“We don’t know yet,” he said. “Depending on how long the spring drags out, it might change the number of acres people plant because their target yields will change. We know we will be left with some amount of seed that will be unsold, but we’re just not sure how much yet.”

Jonk says his own farm has yet to finalize seed needs from customers. Some customers have picked up a portion of their order, he said, but have yet to confirm whether they will be picking up the remainder of the seed.

That unsold seed will have little market opportunity, he noted.

“Especially after how we spent extra money and effort to get it out of the ground last year, if we have volume left over that we thought was sold, that will be the biggest hit,” he said.

At the same time, uncertain demand has seed growers wondering how many acres to put to seed potatoes this year.

As of yet, there are few concrete answers to that question, Jonk said.

“We’re going to need support from either the processors or government to pick up some of the slack if we’re left with extra volume this year,” he said. “Especially because we’re selling a reduced volume because of unharvested acres last year. It’s sort of a double hit this spring.”

Talks with customers, seed growers and processors are ongoing, Jonk noted.

The Keystone Potato Producers Association is also hoping for government aid. Sawatzky suggested the introduction of a buyback program, while surplus processing potatoes might go to food banks or be otherwise donated, he said.

The post COVID-19 puts the brakes on potato acres appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Wet weather in September and early October kept producers out of the fields, while a three-day snowstorm over the Thanksgiving weekend dropped upwards of 75 centimetres of snow in areas of south-central Manitoba, followed by yet more precipitation.

Just 60 to 65 per cent of Manitoba’s potatoes had been harvested as of Oct. 9, the Keystone Potato Producers Association said at the time.

All that combined to mean that much of Manitoba’s 2019 potato harvest went into storage in less than ideal condition, according to Keystone Potato Producers Association manager Dan Sawatzky.

“It’s tough dealing with compromised product,” Sawatzky said. “There’s only so much you can do with high levels of rot.”

Producers are trying to limit the time they spend holding potatoes to help mitigate spoilage, Sawatzky added.

The higher storage temperatures usually required for processing potatoes are doing little to avoid spoilage, retired potato agronomist Leonard Rossnagel noted.

“The organisms that are contributing to breakdown also like those warmer temperatures, so growers are in a bit of a bind,” he said.

Some producers are dropping their bunker temperatures in an effort to stave off rot in frozen potatoes, he said, but that comes at a cost too.

“What happens then is the metabolism of the tuber favours sugar accumulation, and then when you try and fry those potatoes, they end up dark and they taste a little bit burnt, because the sugars are caramelized,” he said. “So the question is, can you warm those up enough to reverse that process and make it acceptable to the processors?”

Some frost-damaged tubers were also earmarked for the newly expanded Simplot plant as processors look for ways to utilize those tubers, Sawatzky noted.

Jamie Smart, owner of Smart Electric, said he has heard many tales of farmers fighting pockets of rot in their bunkers. The Carberry company is a dealer for Techmark’s controls and ventilation systems for potato storage.

“There was a lot of different challenges,” Smart said of the 2019 season. “Potatoes went from too dry to too hot to too wet and then to too cold.”

The storage challenges are no surprise to producers, he noted. Harvest conditions had already flagged potential issues as potatoes were going into the pile.

“But it’s abnormal compared to a standard year where they have better digging conditions, for sure,” he said. “The summer was fantastic growing conditions. There was a great crop coming in. It would’ve stored really well.”

Popularity decline?

Two hard harvests will likely do little to help potato acres, despite a $480-million Simplot plant expansion in Portage la Prairie.

Seed is already tight. Manitoba’s harvest challenges have hit both seed and processing potatoes, Rossnagel noted, and growers are looking to lock down seed supplies earlier this year as a result. He suggested that Manitoba may see more seed supplies coming out of Alberta, since that province dodged some of the challenges seen here.

“I think the two years back to back of challenging situations certainly will limit the ability to expand as quickly as growers were hoping to,” Sawatzky also said.

“With big losses, you just don’t have the capital to take advantage of some of the big opportunities that the Simplot expansion has presented. It is going to be a little bit of a setback for the whole industry, for processors and growers.”

Fall 2019 marked the second year of quality concerns, unharvested acres, and battles with rot due to weather.

Producers expected a bumper crop, the third largest on record, leading up to harvest in 2018. Those hopes were dashed. The previously dry season suddenly turned into a rainy September, followed by a hard frost in mid-October that froze many tubers in the ground. About 5,200 acres had to be abandoned in the field, Sawatzky later said.

Producers who took a chance storing those frost-damaged potatoes later fought with rot, despite piling bunkers lower to try and mitigate the risk. Sawatzky estimated that potatoes from another 4,000 acres had to be dumped back on the land.

“Generally, when you have potatoes that show more than five or six per cent frost, they’re very difficult to store,” he said. “Last year, we exceeded that. That’s why we struggled to store any and use any, so most of them were thrown away.”

In early 2019, the sector reported that major processors were sourcing potatoes from Alberta and Idaho to make up some of that lack.

At the time, Sawatzky called 2018 “unprecedented,” in Manitoba history.

However, 2019 saw a repeat performance.

Producers did not see the same devastating frost damage as 2018, he noted, although skyrocketing rot cases were common, given the extended period of time tubers were sitting in saturated soil. Carberry, one of the main potato-growing regions of the province, reported over 350 per cent of its normal precipitation during the month of September, according to the Manitoba Ag Weather network.

“Last year, that frost came Oct. 11-12, but growers still had a number of acres out just because of the rain. This year, we had more rain, so actually the season was extended,” Sawatzky said.

Growers also did have several days after the frost where they were able to harvest, he added.

The Keystone Potato Producers Association estimates just over 12,000 acres of Manitoba’s potato acres remain unharvested, with an additional 1,000 acres dug with severe frost damage.

The post Another winter of headaches for potato growers appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

J.R. Simplot’s $460-million expansion of its Portage la Prairie plant is expected to double the operation’s need for tubers when it comes online this fall.

Why it matters: Manitoba’s potato sector is in line for expansion with a major processing boost waiting in the wings, but the sector also faces tight seed potato supplies after a tough fall.

Last fall excess moisture and frost resulted in an unprecedented number of unharvested acres, but industry representatives say there should still be enough seed to go around.

Leonard Rossnagel, retired potato agronomist and former director with the Seed Potato Growers Association of Manitoba, says the industry has already planned for tight seed potato supplies.

“Because potato growers knew of the difficulties with last fall’s harvest on their own farms and, knowing that a lot of seed potatoes are grown in the province and could experience some of the same issues, they were cognizant of the fact that seed would be in short supply and secured their seed needs early,” he said.

Both McCain and J.R. Simplot also tried to release their potential production requirements early to help with planning, he added.

Less damage?

Seed potatoes were not as hard hit as processing potatoes last year, Rossnagel said.

Thousands of potato acres were left unharvested for the first time in recent memory in 2018 after an October frost froze fields several inches deep.

Keystone Potato Producers Association president Dan Sawatzky estimated that about 5,200 acres went unharvested last year during a meeting of the Keystone Agricultural Producers in November.

Growers later reported storage issues, adding to the fall damage. Despite efforts to increase airflow through storage piles, Sawatzky said that some frost-damaged potatoes had been harvested late in an effort to salvage the crop, and later spoiled.

Farmers reported extra storage concerns in January, including some concern over early-dug potatoes that missed the frost, but were hit with wet conditions. Extreme cold over the winter, likewise, created worry over aeration.

Seed potatoes may not have been hit by that killing frost in the same way processing potatoes were, given their earlier harvest date, according to Rossnagel.

“That being said though, supplies would have been tight even without the weather,” he said, adding that the sector has brought seed potatoes in from Saskatchewan and Alberta to make up the shortfall.

Simplot has said that the expanded plant will be fully operational by 2020.

The company announced the $460-million expansion in February 2018. When complete, the project will over double the floor space of the plant from 180,000 to 460,000 square feet and, according to the initial release from the company, add 87 full-time jobs.

“Generally, people are glad for the opportunity,” Sawatzky said. “These kinds of tough harvests are not the norm, so I guess certainly that harvest has made them aware of the potential risks that maybe have always been there, but last year’s harvest brought it to the forefront. I think the way that farmers are treating it is that they are anticipating, going forward, that, that kind of a fall won’t repeat itself for a number of years.”

The incoming expansion, which promises to be a major boost for local potato growers, is at odds with the memory of 2018’s historically difficult harvest. The dichotomy has created some mixed feelings among potato growers, Sawatzky said, although Rossnagel doubts such feelings will impact the expected expansion in acres.

“Growers will not generally plant process potatoes on spec. Given that the cost of producing potatoes is in the $3,000-an-acre range, they cannot afford to grow potatoes on spec. This new plant expansion will certainly be requiring more potatoes, so there will be more potatoes planted,” he said.

He has, in fact, heard a number of producers planning capital upgrades to keep up with the rise in demand.

The post Potato sector not stressing on seed, despite tight supplies appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

It’s especially frustrating because growers were looking at a bumper crop, forecast to be the third-largest harvest on record. But they were denied that by rains that delayed harvest and hard frosts that hit in mid-October causing ground to freeze as deep as three inches and ultimately leaving more than 5,000 acres, causing Dan Sawatzky, Keystone Potato Producers Association manager, to describe the situation as “unprecedented” in the province’s 50-year history of growing potatoes.

Why it matters: Industry insiders say the toughest potato harvest in a generation set the stage for tight storage supplies and also created potential problems with storing this season’s crop. Now as winter wears on growers are seeing those issues arise.

“People were scrambling to dig that crop even in conditions that were maybe not the most ideal, so we are seeing additional storage losses that we may not have seen under better conditions,” Sawatzky said at the recent Manitoba Potato Production Days in Brandon.

Storage challenges are no surprise to those growers who took a chance on salvaging frost-damaged crop. Producers were piling late-dug potatoes lower than normal, Sawatzky noted, something that he now says is saving some of those smaller, low-piled sheds.

Those frost-damaged potatoes will generally break down in storage as the waterlogged tissue provides a host for rot, Leonard Rossnagel of the Manitoba Seed Growers Association said.

“One thing that producers have been doing is keeping temperatures lower in their storages and putting as much air through the pile as they can — the extra air through the pile to dry up these tubers and the lower temperatures to reduce the activity of the rot organisms,” Rossnagel said.

The challenges are not limited to frost-damaged tubers, however, and Sawatzky reports that some early-dug potatoes are also facing more spoilage due to wet harvest earlier in fall.

“We realized that we would have some issues,” Sawatzky said, later noting the number of producers working to circulate fresh air and heat-dry potatoes during November. “The processors have worked very hard to try and salvage and use what they can, so they’ve been working maybe a little closer (with farmers) because the need is there for them to use what they can.”

In November, Sawatzky told the Manitoba Co-operator that processors were working with producers on issues like fry colour, although he stresses that those processors must still meet their quality specifications.

Rossnagel says he has heard some producers complain of storage issues in sheds they initially expected to weather the winter.

Manitoba’s recent cold weather has only increased the spoilage risk. A polar vortex sent temperatures plummeting below -30 C throughout Manitoba in late January, with some overnight lows inching towards or beyond -40 C.

“The fans will run, pushing air through the pile, all the time,” Rossnagel said. “The problem with really cold temperatures is that you are restricted with the amount of outside air that you can bring in. Outside air is always much drier than the air in the storage, so if you can bring in outside air, that air is drier, and as you push that through the pile, you will dry down some of these wet spots.”

At the same time, he added, colder temperatures may translate to higher sugars and undesirably dark potatoes when fried.

“It’s a fine line between having your temperatures high enough so that they will process, but low enough so that they store,” he said.

The remaining winter will determine how much of the stored potato crop will make it to spring, Sawatzky said, although the province’s seed potato crop may have a better chance of surviving due to its cooler storage.

The post Spud growers battling storage woes appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

It’s especially frustrating because growers were looking at a bumper crop, forecast to be the third largest harvest on record. But they were denied that by rains that delayed harvest and hard frosts that hit in mid-October causing ground to freeze as deep as three inches and ultimately leaving more than 5000 acres, causing Dan Sawkatsky, Keystone Potato Producers Association manager, to describe the situation as “unprecedented” in the province’s 50 year history of growing potatoes. .

“People were scrambling to dig that crop even in conditions that were maybe not the most ideal, so we are seeing additional storage losses that we may not have seen under better conditions,” Sawatzky said at the recent Manitoba Potato Production Days in Brandon.

Storage challenges are no surprise to those growers who took a chance on salvaging frost-damaged crop. Producers were piling late-dug potatoes lower than normal, Sawatzky noted, something that he now says is saving some of those smaller, low piled sheds.

Those frost-damaged potatoes will generally break down in storage as the waterlogged tissue provides a host for rot, Leonard Rossnagel of the Manitoba Seed Growers Association said.

“One thing that producers have been doing is keeping temperatures lower in their storages and putting as much air through the pile as they can — the extra air through the pile to dry up these tubers and the lower temperatures to reduce the activity of the rot organisms,” Rossnagel said.

For more on this topic see the February 7, 2019 issue of the Manitoba Co-operator.

The post Potato growers battling storage woes appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“I think overall it’s too early to tell because we haven’t started the main harvest, but we are not expecting as big of yield as the last couple of years,” said Dan Sawatzky, manager of Keystone Potato Producers Association.

Manitoba producers planted 64,100 acres of potatoes this year, up about 1,200 acres from the previous year, according to Statistics Canada. Alberta producers planted 55,410 acres, up about 1,800 acres from 2017. Behind Prince Edward Island, Manitoba and Alberta are the top potato producing provinces.

Acreage rose on the Prairies this year due to processors increasing their contract sizes. Plants in both Manitoba and Alberta are currently working on increasing processing capacity.

Simplot is currently working on an expansion of its Portage la Prairie, Man. plant. The expansion is scheduled to come online in December, 2019. Cavendish Farms is constructing a new plant in Lethbridge, Alta. which will come online in fall 2019.

Alberta acreage increased substantially also due to their seed potatoes. Potatoes grown in northern Alberta are grown for seed and due to the new processing capacity coming online next year acreage increased.

“We sell a fair amount of seed to Manitoba. Our growers are just ramping up (production of) the seed a couple of years before it’s needed,” said Terence Hochstein, executive director of Potato Growers of Alberta, adding Alberta growers also sell a lot of potato seed to the United States, where the market has been growing year over year.

While acreage increased this year, it doesn’t look likely yields will be increasing also. For the last few years, potato yields have risen in Manitoba and Alberta, hitting record highs each year. Last year, Manitoba potatoes had a yield of 353.5 per hundredweight (cwt) per acre, up from 350.0 per cwt per acre in 2016, according to Statistics Canada. Alberta potatoes hit a yield of 390.7 per cwt per acre in 2017, up from 388.0 per cwt per acre the previous year.

However due to the hot, dry weather Western Canada experienced during the summer, this year that won’t be the case.

“(It’s) early as far as really knowing what we might end up with here. The crop might surprise us. But at this point because the set is down I’m expecting the crop will be a little bit lighter than last year,” Sawatzky said.

While potato crops grown for processing in Manitoba and southern Alberta are irrigated, the hot weather still did affect them. According to Swatzky, when it gets too hot outside the potato plant will “shut down” meaning it will stop growing.

“We’ve had a little bit of heat runners. So that means the plants are dropping some tubers and pushing heat runners out. And little tubers attach to those heat runners which detract from yield,” he said.

In Alberta, the story is much the same. The irrigated potatoes in the southern portion of the province will fare much the same as their Manitoba counterparts. While the non-irrigated seed potatoes in northern Alberta will take a harder hit due to the heat.

“(So far the potatoes are looking) very good (in Alberta). (I) have no yield numbers because we’re too early in. But I’m going to say at this point in time we’re probably going to have an average crop,” Hochstein said.

Both Manitoba and Alberta producers are currently in the direct harvest portion of the potato harvest. This means the potatoes are dug up and then taken directly to the plants for processing. The main harvest, which is where the potatoes are stored, won’t start until approximately the middle of September in Manitoba, while in Alberta it should start the second week of September.

“The early crop for the most part (in Manitoba) is coming off as an average, pretty good quality, decent size,” Sawatzky said.

Harvest should wrap up by the start of October in both provinces.

END

The post Prairie potatoes not expected to hit record yields again appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

In the end, however, yields are expected to be similar to last year.

Dave Sawatzky, manager of Keystone Potato Producers Association, said he predicts yields will roughly be on par or slightly better than 2016’s harvest, when Manitoba potato growers brought in 348 hundredweight per acre on average.

“Overall, it looks like a pretty good crop. A very challenging crop, this year, to grow — very dry summers, so irrigation was run hard,” he said.

He added that harvest conditions proved especially difficult when rain fell in mid- to late September, which delayed harvest, pushing many producers past the traditional completion date of Oct. 1.

• Pearce: Heavy rains cause losses in Ontario potato fields

“We start gambling with frost after that date. So, there was a lot of risk or nervousness, I guess, here in the province.”

But with October, farmers’ luck changed. Better weather enabled most to get their potatoes in by Oct. 7 or 8, he said.

Seeded area was down from a year ago, at 62,500 acres, compared to 65,000 in 2016. Contracted acres were reduced to better match supply needs of french fry processors McCain Foods in Portage la Prairie and Carberry, and J.R. Simplot in Portage la Prairie.

This year’s long, strange road to harvest gave producers cause for concern right from the start. The large set early in the season, where there are more tubers than normal under each plant, sparked worries that the tubers would not reach an acceptable size.

Then heat came at the end of August and early September, which may have reduced tuber “bulking” and trimmed yields back a bit, said Sawatzky. He added that heat also delayed harvest as producers waited for cooler weather to arrive, not wanting to put warm tubers into storage because they don’t keep well under those conditions.

In the end, most potatoes gained acceptable size, although there are some size issues with one variety, Umatilla Russet, in one area of the province.

In recent years, potato yields have generally been increasing, a trend Sawatzky attributes to several factors.

He said one variety, Innovator, has enabled producers in the Portage la Prairie region to achieve higher yields, although markets for it are limited due to its slightly yellow colour. McCain holds the rights to Innovator.

Other reasons for increasing yields are better management practices as growers fine-tune their irrigation systems. All processing potatoes in Manitoba are grown with irrigation.

Row spacing has also contributed, as many growers now seed on 34-inch row spacing and use more seed per acre, compared to the 38-inch spacings and then 36-inch spacings used a few years ago.

Based on data from Keystone Potato Producers, Manitoba’s potato harvest for the past six years is as follows:

• 2011 240 cwt per acre;
• 2012 276 cwt per acre;
• 2013 310 cwt per acre;
• 2014 306 cwt per acre;
• 2015 322 cwt per acre;
• 2016 348 cwt per acre.

The post Good potato yields despite challenging year appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.