As harvest winds down for grain and oilseed farmers, the prairie potato harvest is just now in full swing.
Yields are all over the map, depending on whether the fields were irrigated.
Bill Moons, Manitoba’s potato specialist, says the dry conditions this year resulted in “the good, the bad and the ugly” when it comes to yield.
Without irrigation, he said, it was impossible for some growers to keep up with the moisture needs of the plants during August.
“It will be quite bad,” in some areas, he said, while other areas in the south that got more rain will be OK.
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Manitoba grows about 103,000 acres of seed, table and processing potatoes. About 80,000 acres of that is planted to processing varieties.
At Prairie Dome Potatoes in Yorkton, Sask., Katrina Sanders said the first week of harvest showed about half the normal yield of seed potatoes.
It will take until Thanksgiving to harvest the entire 180 acres the Sanders family and three others planted last spring. They do not irrigate.
The tradeoff to lower yield, Sanders said, is excellent quality because there was virtually no disease pressure this year.
“We should get a decent price even though there is only half the crop,” she said.
Saskatchewan’s potato specialist, Andrew Sullivan, said the province is on its way to its largest crop ever. Seeded acreage was at a record 14,000 acres. About half of that was certified for seed and the rest is for table use.
“The irrigated crops we’ve seen so far have looked average to above average,” he said.
Quality will be good, and now growers have to wait to see what prices they will earn.
Last week, Saskatchewan estimated the crop was worth $60 million, but that includes all the value-added spinoffs.
Farmgate prices for seed potatoes are normally set later in November. Sullivan said a drought in European countries may push up values here.
The 85,000 acres harvested in Manitoba last year grossed $143 million at the farmgate, Moons said.
The Alberta harvest was about 30 percent complete as of Sept. 15.
Albertans planted 58,775 acres this year, including 41,000 of processing potatoes, 13,700 acres of seed and 4,100 acres of table varieties.
Vern Warkentin, executive director of Potato Growers of Alberta, said the early varieties that came out in August were in good condition and produced average yields.
The main fall harvest is showing similar results. Warkentin said the potatoes are a bit smaller this year, perhaps because it was so wet early in the season and then dry.
“The plants set a larger number of potatoes, but they are smaller,” he said.
Growers need another three weeks to finish harvesting, he added.
