Wet weather and rising fertiliser prices are forcing farmers to rethink their potato plantings, with tonnages expected to be down significantly in the upcoming season.
Months of wet weather has made the ground in the northern part of the state too muddy for tractors and other machinery to get onto paddocks.
The wet ground also increases the risk of crop disease.
There has also been extra pressure this year because fertiliser prices have skyrocketed.
Former McCain grower representative and seed potato grower Beau Gooch said it was becoming significantly more expensive to grow potatoes.
“Fertiliser costs have put a double-figure [increase] into the cost of growing spuds,” he said.
“If we were going into a dry planting, it probably wouldn’t have been an issue. But your risk growing this crop is significantly higher than when the contract you signed was negotiated.”
Leigh Elphinstone, Simplot Growers Committee chair and north-west potato grower, said the weather and fertiliser hurdles could result in a potato shortage.
“I would expect at this stage that yields will be down, some crops have gone into ground that’s less than ideal,” he said.
“Some growers, I’m led to believe, are pulling out of paddocks that are laying too wet.
“It’s just going to be too late to get the crop in.”
State agronomy manager for Nutrien, Stuart Millwood said the season was significantly behind schedule.
“It’s certainly been the wettest winter/spring that we’ve seen for a number of years,” he said.
“As we sit at the moment, we’re about 20 per cent of area planted, normally around this time of year we’d be about 80 per cent.
“If we don’t get our crops in in good conditions then it certainly reduces the yield … we always welcome timely rains but at the moment it’s been pretty constant.”
A source: https://www.abc.net.au
