Spud Smart Magazine

Long-term research points to a practical way to reduce nitrogen fertilizer costs and greenhouse gas emissions — without sacrificing potato productivity. For potato growers, nitrogen is one of the biggest input costs — and one of the hardest to get exactly right. Apply too little and yields can suffer. Apply too much and growers not only spend more than necessary, but risk greater nitrogen losses to the environment.

I’ve been watching a lot of History Channel as Americans gear up to celebrate 250 years. I really enjoy the retrospectives, documentaries and deep dives into how the USA was built. It also got me thinking about how the potato industry has grown and developed. HZPC has been around for 125 years, breeding potatoes and trying to drive the industry forward. Much like the founding of our country, none of this happened in isolation.

Your weekly roundup of the latest potato industry news from around the world.

The Do More Agriculture Foundation has appointed Emma Cross as chair of its board and welcomed three new directors as it expands efforts to support mental health across Canadian agriculture. Cross, a pedigreed Hereford cattle rancher from Tofield, Alberta, succeeds Sartaj Sarkaria, who remains on the board.

The federal government is betting that strengthening Canadian agriculture is key to improving food affordability, announcing the country’s first-ever National Food Security Strategy backed by more than $3 billion over the next decade.

Ryan Barrett, Research and Agronomy Specialist with the PEI Potato Board Regardless of where one grows potatoes across this great nation, all growers have similar things on their mind: Does my crop have enough nutrition to meet my yield goals? Should I be spraying for [insert pest/disease here]? Why is part of my field looking great, while another part of my field looks a bit rough?

Your weekly roundup of the latest potato industry news from around the world.

Walk enough acres over enough years, and you start to recognize the pattern. Some of your fields just don’t respond like they used to. You apply the same program (or even a stronger one), yet the crop doesn’t push. Yield potential flattens, variability increases, disease pressure shows up earlier and costs more. While the field still produces, it gradually takes more effort, time, energy and inputs to maintain expected levels of performance.

Syngenta Group China has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with McDonald’s China and McCain China to pilot a science-driven program aimed at transforming local potato farming, processing, and traceability — using precision fertigation, integrated pest management, intelligent field monitoring, and digital farming — to deliver higher-quality, more sustainable fries to Chinese consumers.

Miss the latest NAPSO / Spud Smart webinar? We’ve got you covered. Storage season doesn’t end when the doors close — it starts long before that. Watch the webinar replay to hear potato storage experts Tyson Arnold of Industrial Ventilation and Nathan Gelles of DECCO Post-Harvest share practical strategies for protecting crop quality through long-term storage.