Signage outside McCain’s Farms of The Future site at Florenceville-Bristol, about 110 km northwest of Fredericton. (Photos courtesy McCain)

Learning from McCain’s regenerative farming practices

Potato processing giant aims to 'de-risk' practices for growers

In 2021 McCain said it was going to launch three regenerative potato farming operations by 2025 and would label them “Farms of the Future.” The first, just outside of Florenceville-Bristol, N.B., now offers data to reflect on the effectiveness of the practices at the potato farm after its first fully operational season. “If we don’t […] Read more

File photo of a P.E.I. potato field against the backdrop of the Confederation Bridge. (Onepony/iStock/Getty Images)

P.E.I. table stock potato exports to U.S. now allowed

New U.S. order replaces previous requirements; seed potatoes still blocked

Exports of Prince Edward Island table stock potatoes are again officially allowed to enter the mainland United States, after new U.S. entry rules regarding potato wart were published Friday. Canada’s federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said on Twitter that officials with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) are now preparing to certify exports of eligible […] Read more

With no new products in the pipeline and fewer options due to re-evaluation, resistance or supply issues, producers need to be nimble when it comes to weed control options.

Living without Linuron in the tank

Growers will have to alter practices and mix and match other products to control weeds

When the 2020 re-evaluation of herbicide Linuron dropped the application rate for potatoes, growers thought they would be off the hook until 2023, when the new rate comes into effect.  However, the registrant ran into regulatory issues after sourcing a technical active ingredient from a new provider. That pushed back production, causing supply issues.  “It […] Read more

Federal Conservative ag critic and Alberta MP John Barlow speaks with P.E.I. potato grower Alex Docherty (r) in a March 18, 2022 photo. (John Barlow photo via Facebook)

Mainland U.S. moving to resume P.E.I. potato imports

P.E.I. growers get 'certainty' for spring planting, Bibeau says

Exports of fresh potatoes from Prince Edward Island to the mainland U.S. are expected to resume “soon” as U.S. officials move to put new rules in place for such shipments. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) said Thursday that Canada “is expected to soon resume exporting (P.E.I.) table stock […] Read more

File photo of a Prince Edward Island potato field. (Onepony/iStock/Getty Images)

P.E.I. potato exports cleared for Puerto Rico

U.S. territory has no commercial potato production

A U.S. territory with an appetite for Canadian potatoes and no commercial potato production to speak of will be able to resume imports of table stock potatoes from Prince Edward Island starting Wednesday. The resumption of exports to Puerto Rico, announced Tuesday, is a spot of good news for the province’s potato sector. Export certificates […] Read more



File photo of a Prince Edward Island potato field. (Onepony/iStock/Getty Images)

‘Expedited’ potato wart survey helps make case for P.E.I., CFIA says

National survey done 'ahead of schedule'

A national survey finding no potato wart in any “unregulated” Canadian fields should offer the reassurance on Prince Edward Island potatoes that trading partners such as the U.S. are now looking for, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says. CFIA on Thursday reported it has completed this fall’s national survey for the soil-borne fungal potato disease […] Read more

A tractor-mounted snowblower runs through rows of piled-up surplus potatoes on a field near Victoria, P.E.I., about 35 km west of Charlottetown, on Dec. 20, 2021. The shredded potatoes are expected to break down over the winter as compost. (Screengrab from P.E.I. Potato Board video)

Feds put up funds toward managing P.E.I. potato surplus

Ottawa budgets $28 million for distribution and disposal

Prince Edward Island potatoes locked out of the U.S. export market will go either to food banks or “environmentally-sound” disposal with new federal funding. Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Monday announced $28 million “to support the diversion of surplus potatoes, including help to redirect surplus potatoes to organizations addressing food insecurity and support for […] Read more


Waneta treated with Gibberellic Acid (GA) shows strong, uniform early emergency on the left compared to the control on the right during the WD Potato Ltd. GA trials in 2020.

Treatment could manage chipping potato size

Gibberellic Acid could be a solution to using potato varieties too large for chipping

Potato growers know that size, consistency and uniformity matter to the bottom line and non-marketable potatoes at harvest can chip away at profitability.  Take the Waneta potato; a good chipper variety appreciated by growers but panned by some processors due to its larger size.  In 2020, Mark VanOostrum, supply manager at WD Potato Limited, along […] Read more

Fields can present with a type of herbicide injury, but the symptoms can be mimicked by non-herbicide injury sources like root-lesion nematode infestations in this photo.

Herbicide injury rising in potato fields

Knowledge and preventative management can mitigate most instances

The source of potato herbicide injury isn’t always easy to pin down, especially when the usual suspects aren’t the guilty ones.  During a recent Ontario Potato Board webinar, Andy Robinson, extension potato agronomist at North Dakota State University/University of Minnesota (NDSU/UMN,) said pinpointing how herbicides came into contact with a plant is often a challenge […] Read more