With the arrival of fall a little over two weeks away, some farmers in Saskatchewan are just breaking ground on the potato harvest, but early reviews for the province's seed potatoes are great.
The Thompson family farm, near Riverhurst, is growing close to 600 acres of irrigated seed potatoes this year. They are just harvesting their first field, and Neil Thompson likes what he sees. He says both the production and quality of the spuds is above average. "Everything looks good. Our profiles are good. There's very few misshapes. I don't see any sign of any disease in the plants. I didn't all summer. Everything looks good."
Close to 7000 acres of seed potatoes are being grown in Saskatchewan this year. Another 4000 acres of the tubers will be harvested for the table market. The province's 16 seed potato producers will sell their spuds to customers, who will use them to grow next year's crop.
Saskatchewan's seed potato industry is still relatively small. But current and future demands point to continued growth for production in the province.
"Next year I think our opportunities are big," says Thompson. "There have been some disasters everywhere else in the world. And somebody else's pain is always somebodies gain. We could increase if we want to."
Thompson says there's a ready market for Saskatchewan-grown seed potatoes. The province is isolated from major potato growing areas, which helps keep the spuds free of disease and pests. And the climate here produces potatoes with superior growing traits.
"Potatoes that we sell into the Washington area and other areas of the country seem to produce better than most of the other people that sell seed in there. It's just the Saskatchewan weather and the long days and cool nights that has a lot to say about the vigor in seed," says Thompson.
There are high costs for machinery and inputs in potato production. But the returns are normally better than growing grains or oilseeds. Should there be further irrigation expansion in the province the number of acres planted to potatoes, and specifically seed potatoes, is sure to rise.
