CAMROSE, Alta. – High grain prices won’t entice potato farmers to switch from the lowly spud, says Alan Stuart, manager of the Potato Growers of Alberta.
“Potatoes are in their blood.”
Stuart anticipated Alberta potato acreage will increase slightly from 27,000 acres last year to 30,000 acres this year, despite a slow seeding start.
Like other crops, the cold and wet weather is delaying seeding. About 75 percent of the crop is planted in southern Alberta and about 20 percent of the crop is grown in the north, he said.
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“In the cold soils nothing grows,” he said.
The largest potato-growing area is along Highway 36 from Brooks to Taber and along Highway 3 east of Taber to Bow Island. Further north there are good growing regions from Lacombe to Gull Lake and around Fort Saskatchewan.
There are also small pockets of potatoes in the Peace region and on Hutterite colonies across the province, he said.
Despite the slow seeding start, Stuart expected the rest of the potatoes to be seeded quickly once the weather warms up.
Potato plants in Manitoba have increased contract acres to Alberta producers while other growers are responding to a big demand for seed potatoes from Mexico.
Alberta producers have shipped 90 truck loads of potatoes to Mexico since the border opened in February.
“It’s beyond our expectations.”
