By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE – Potato officials say the 2008 crop is looking good despite cases of late blight in the area.
At the Aug. 20 Maine Potato Board meeting, directors talked about challenges the potato industry will face this year and next, and what growers can do to stay on top of those issues.
“Late blight is present; however, it’s not severe in a lot of places,” said Dr. Steven B. Johnson, crops specialist and professor at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. “The growers are doing what they need to do to take care of the problem.
“The answer isn’t simple,” he said. “It’s not because of cull piles only, not seed-borne only, and not Maine only. A good vine kill, good harvesting techniques and bin management are what can help the late blight issue. We’d sure like to have some dry weather, too.”
Despite the late blight, Johnson said the crops “look pretty good.”
“I think we’ve got good yields,” he said.
Don Flannery, executive director of the Maine Potato Board, said a meeting will be held Sept. 3 to discuss disease issues, including late blight, facing both the Maine and Maritime potato-growing regions.
On Nov. 19, 2004, industry leaders on both sides of the border met to plan a coordinated approach to potato disease management. The primary goal of the International Maine Maritime Potato Action Team, or IMMPACT, was to establish cooperation and sharing of information across the border on strategies to minimize late blight infestation for the 2005 growing season.
“I’ve been here at the board for 12 years, and we’ve had late blight for 12 years,” said Flannery. “Clearly we’re missing something somewhere, and hopefully we can figure it out. At the Sept. 3 meeting, we need to ask the tough questions and come up with a plan, but we can’t do it unless it’s done on the dirt road that separates Maine and New Brunswick.”
Director Brandon Roope said most growers are spending twice what they normally do on spray chemicals.
“I’m getting to know the inside of my spray coupe better than my pickup,” he said. “There’s something wrong with that.”
“You create a balance sheet in the spring and it looks good,” said director Murray Blackstone, “but every time you have to go buy a part, it affects your budget. We’re paying close to 300 percent more on fungicide than a year ago. I’m dumbfounded.”
Financial institution lenders who also attended the August meeting recognized the hardships growers are facing.
“The problem beyond cash flow,” said one banker, “is ‘What are these balance sheets going to look like?’ We need to start working on this to get us through the next five years.”
The board agreed to have a meeting with lenders after this year’s potato harvest with the hope of “putting stronger solutions in place.”
Also at the meeting, directors received an update from Dave Littell, commissioner of Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection, who discussed environmental issues affecting the potato industry including energy, low flow rule and the reclassification of the Aroostook River.
Hal Prince, director of the Maine Department of Agriculture’s Quality Assurance and Regulation, division, was on hand to discuss fee increases growers will face.
In other news, Flannery said the television show “Modern Marvels” on the History Channel visited Maine a few weeks ago to film a segment on the potato.
“One of the producers of the show is from Aroostook County and his mother was a Potato Blossom queen,” said Flannery. “He said if he was going to do a show about potatoes, it had to be filmed in Maine, so they came up for a week or so.”
While in Aroostook County, TV crews interviewed Flannery, and later visited Jim Gerritsen of Wood Prairie Farms in Bridgewater. They also visited grower Don Thibodeau in Fryeburg and the Cold River Vodka company that uses Maine potatoes to produce their product.
“We’re not sure when the air date will be,” said Flannery, “but we’re told it could be around the holidays … Thanksgiving or Christmas. We all could be a ‘modern marvel’ before we know it.”
The next Maine Potato Board meeting will be Wednesday, Oct. 22 at 3 p.m.