AgriPost June 26 2020

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The AgriPost

June 26, 2020

Potato Acres Drop Due to COVID-19 But The Crop Looks Good

Ashley Robinson, the editor of Spud Smart magazine, said the potato farmers used the Thai SpudnikEquip for the direct seeding Chad Berry’s farm, who is a potato and grain farmer and president of Keynote Potato Producers. This is Berry’s second year experimenting with direct seeding on a potato field. Last year he had seeded part of a field into rye stubble, however due to the inclement weather he couldn’t harvest the field. His experiment with direct seeding is drawing interest from growers across North America.

By Harry Siemens Vikram Bisht, a Plant Pathologist with Manitoba Agriculture, said that in general, the potato crops look very, very good with a very nice stand. “However, we had a very cool and wet start,” said Vikram. “Wet soils from the subsoil moisture, and so, in fact, we will have challenges

of soft rot or some blackleg disease. Otherwise, the crop stand in most fields looks very beautiful.” With the challenging year of 2019, estimates showed farmers left more than 12,000 acres of potatoes underground, more than double the amount left in the ground at the end of the 2018 season. Bisht said that the total acres

planted in 2020 would be slightly less than last year’s 70,000 acres. He had hoped for over 70,000, but then the COVID-19 problem has cut acres. The processors called for more acres, but many growers had finished their planting already. So growers, normally planting processing potatoes, could not find any land cultivated or treated for

potato production. The current estimate number is close to 67,000 to 68,500 acres. “There was a renewed call in some growing pick up, but we could not overtake last year’s numbers, which they could have if processors had decided earlier that the growers could go for more acres,” said Bisht. “The implication of this would be that many of

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Key Recommendations Outlined in Forage Insurance Review After extensive engagement with producers, the Manitoba government released details of a review on forage insurance programs offered by the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation (MASC). “Regardless of the type of crop, producers are faced with tough decisions on what products make the most sense to help manage risk,” said Agriculture and Resource Development Minister Blaine Pedersen. “It is important to get feedback so that we have a clear picture of what products they need to support their success in the agricultural industry. We’re pleased with the input we received from the many invested stakeholders and look forward to making improvements to the program where possible.” The review was initiated to get a better understanding of the purchasing decisions of Manitoba producers in terms of forage insurance products available to them. Several key recommendations were made and immediate action items will be undertaken by MASC prior to the next insurance year. Some of which include exploring new methodologies to assign coverages to new insured; determining if the effect that disaster years have on future coverage can be minimized; establishing insured values that better reflect the price of hay in claim years; identifying areas where the administrative burden for insured can be minimized; reviewing the index-based insurance approach used in other jurisdictions which relies on weather or satellite-based technology, and working more closely with industry to inform producers and increase awareness of the MASC Forage Insurance programs. The review was conducted using a number of different methods, including the EngageMB portal, focus groups and interviews with producers, MASC insurance agents, agricultural specialists, industry associations, financial advisors, as well as other insurance providers. More than 1,200 producers currently have forage insurance through MASC, insuring more than 272,000 acres. This represents about 18 per cent of the more than 1.5 million eligible acres of forage in Manitoba. The Forage Insurance program is part of AgriInsurance, a joint program of the Government of Canada and the Province of Manitoba under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership. For more information, and to view a copy of the review, visit gov.mb.ca/asset_library/en/proactive/2020_2021/forage-insurance-review-May-2020.


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AgriPost June 26 2020 by AgriPost - Issuu