Search
Better Farming OntarioBetter PorkBetter Farming Prairies

Better Farming Ontario Featured Articles

Better Farming Ontario magazine is published 11 times per year. After each edition is published, we share featured articles online.


Poor potato prospects

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

Ontario’s potato fields contained bumper yields in 2009 but a poorer quality crop means processors and retailers will run out of locally grown spuds earlier than normal.

Kevin Marcoux, field man with the Ontario Potato Board, says weather conditions, which included cooler-than-normal temperatures, meant that the crop did not mature fully: “It’s nothing you can chalk up to management.”

Ontario is not the only area affected. “It’s an Eastern Canadian problem, if not a Canadian problem this year,” Marcoux says, noting that Quebec, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island are dealing with the same problems.

For the province’s processing chip processors, main issues are colour and physical quality. Potatoes destined for potato chips (known as “chipping potatoes”), are judged by their colour, oil content, flavour and uniformity. Higher sugar levels can discolour the chips.

 In the fresh market physical quality issues predominate, he says.

Marcoux says he could not estimate how much of the crop is lost at this point. “We are working through it.”

The majority of the culled potatoes will end up going to the livestock industry.

Processors will likely have to import new product from the southern United States ahead of schedule to make up the difference and local product will disappear from grocery shelves earlier in June than usual, he says.

Marcoux says the problem won’t affect price negotiations with processors that are underway for the 2010 crop. Those negotiations are expected to wrap up mid-month.

According to a January Statistics Canada report, Ontario’s 150 potato growers harvested 36,400 acres of potatoes in 2009 with an average yield of 215 hundredweight per acre.

In Canada, the total area harvested in 2009 was 361,600 acres, down three per cent from 2008. The national crop, weighing in at 4,581,224 tonnes, had dropped two per cent from the year before. BF
 

Current Issue

June/July 2025

Better Farming Magazine

Farms.com Breaking News

Calf Auction Raises Funds for Youth

Monday, June 30, 2025

Wyatt Westman-Frijters from Milverton won a heifer calf named Ingrid through a World Milk Day promotion by Maplevue Farms and a local Perth, Ontario radio station. Instead of keeping the calf, 22-year-old Westman-Frijters chose to give back to the community. The calf was sent to the... Read this article online

Cattle Stress Tool May Boost Fertility

Friday, June 27, 2025

Kansas State University researchers have developed a cool tool that may help reduce cattle stress and improve artificial insemination (AI) results. The idea came from animal science experts Nicholas Wege Dias and Sandy Johnson, who observed that cattle accustomed to their environment... Read this article online

Ontario pasture lands get $5M boost

Friday, June 27, 2025

The governments of Canada and Ontario are investing up to $5 million to strengthen shared community grazing pastures. This funding supports the province’s plan to protect Ontario’s agriculture sector and help cattle farmers improve pasture quality, ensuring long-term sustainability and... Read this article online

Health Canada sets rules for drone spraying

Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Health Canada has approved the use of drones, also called Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS), for pesticide application under the Pest Control Products Act (PCPA). Drones are considered aircraft by Transport Canada, but Health Canada treats them differently due to their unique... Read this article online

BF logo

It's farming. And it's better.

 

a Farms.com Company

Subscriptions

Subscriber inquiries, change of address, or USA and international orders, please email: subscriptions@betterfarming.com or call 888-248-4893 x 281.


Article Ideas & Media Releases

Have a story idea or media release? If you want coverage of an ag issue, trend, or company news, please email us.

Follow us on Social Media

 

Sign up to a Farms.com Newsletter

 

DisclaimerPrivacy Policy2025 ©AgMedia Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Back To Top