Variable precipitation had an impact on this year’s potato crop in southwestern Ontario province in Canada, especially if the operator didn’t have irrigation.
At Brenn-B Farms in Waterdown, co-owner Shawn Brenn reported that his 750-acre potato crop yield plummeted to about 9 tonnes per acre, down from the usual 15-17 tonnes, as Nelson Zandbergen reports for Farmers Forum.
“This is our second-worst year in 80 years,” Brenn said. The farm was likely to buy crop insurance on future potato crops because of increasingly variable rainfall. The Brenn operation grows about 20 varieties of potatoes, most of them bound for the table-potato market rather than the processed potato market.
At Norfolk Potato Company, in Delhi, where they do irrigate their fields, the operator reported his crop was “still definitely” down from last year, but not to the same degree as Brenns.
“Some areas of the province experienced dry conditions during the growing season, and potato farmers in those regions may have been impacted by the lack of rainfall,” OMAFRA spokesperson Belinda Sutton said.
A source: https://www.potatonewstoday.com
