Spud planting gets under way

Shortages prompt some growers to switch varieties

Dave Wilkins
Capital Press
March 07, 2008

It looks like Pacific Northwest spud growers may have enough seed to plant this year's crop after all.

Growers have managed to work around shortages of some U.S.-grown seed varieties and a ban on Alberta seed potatoes by moving to alternative varieties, industry officials said.

Planting began last week in the Columbia Basin in Washington state.

"Guys have been able to plant spuds, but a lot of them have had to switch varieties," Chris Voigt, executive director of the Washington State Potato Commission, said in an interview this week.

Early season varieties such as Shepody, Ranger Russet, Umatilla Russet and Russet Norkotah are in very short supply this year, Voigt said.

"Essentially growers have found a lot of Russet Burbank seed to replace it," he said.

Washington growers will continue planting into May, about the time that many Idaho growers begin.

Spud acreage may be down a little in Washington this year, but it's too early to know how much, Voigt said.

Normally, about 30 percent of the Washington potato crop is planted from Alberta-grown seed.

But it's unlikely that any Alberta seed will be planted in the Northwest this year because of the discovery of potato cyst nematodes on two Edmonton-area seed farms last fall.

The two farms were quarantined, and the U.S. border has been closed to Alberta potato seed since November.

Alberta growers have pretty much given up on exporting potato seed to the U.S. or Mexico this year because of the closed border, said Vern Warkentin, executive director of the Potato Growers of Alberta.

"The seed that would have gone into the export trade, whether the Pacific Northwest or Mexico , that seed will most likely end up being fed to cattle," Warkentin said in a phone interview this week.

"I think ( Alberta ) growers are just looking at the calendar and saying, 'OK, we have to move on,'" he said. "We have to get ready for 2008, and we have to get this (2007) crop out of our storage."

Seed potatoes grown outside the two quarantined farms can be used by commercial growers in Alberta or shipped to other provinces as long as soil testing indicates that the lots are clean.

"But functionally, this hasn't been happening because the growers in other provinces are being cautious," Warkentin said. "I'm not aware of any seed moving out of Alberta at all."

There are few alternative uses for the unsold seed potatoes, he said. The spuds would be unsuitable to move directly into the fresh or frozen processing markets.

"There is a limited dehy possibility in Alberta , and the rest will have to go for cattle feed or be destroyed," Warkentin said.

Alberta 's seed potato growers could lose up to $35 million in revenue this year because of the fallout from the pest find and the border closure, he said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency are still in discussions, but it appears it will be at least 2009 before the border will be reopened to Alberta seed spuds, industry officials said.

Staff writer Dave Wilkins is based in Twin Falls , Idaho . E-mail: dwilkins@capitalpress.com.

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