Should late blight invade his fields east of Taber this season, he’ll be ready for it. “On our farm, we go with a full arsenal of fungicides. So far, we’ve been spared any storage losses related to late blight. There have been a few farmers who were not so lucky,” he says.
Times have changed for Alberta growers. Up until four years ago, the province was virtually late blight-free. Lately, wet springs and high humidity — uncharacteristic for this region — have nurtured the growth and spread of the disease, causing sticker shock for some growers due to the increased number of fungicide applications needed to protect crops from late blight.
“We went from four sprays to 10 applications of fungicides. It’s a huge increase in cost,” says Schutter. “We have applied a lot more fungicide and more expensive, newer types to be proactive and control the disease.”
All totalled, Alberta growers took a big hit to the pocketbook in 2013. “We estimated about $12.5 million last year in added costs for [crop] protection and shrink in the potato shed,” says Jeremy Carter, technical director of the Potato Growers of Alberta.
Not to mention the toll anxiety about the disease has taken on more than a few growers. “[There’s] the stress factor of dealing with something you’re not familiar with…. Then you have to wonder if it will transfer from the plants above ground into the tubers and, if it does, once you enter storage season you might have breakdown in your bins,” says Schutter. “To stop it from keeping you up at night, you have to do your due diligence.”
This take-charge attitude is echoed throughout the Alberta potato-growing community, says Terence Hochstein, PGA’s executive director. “Alberta growers are very proactive. They have an excellent relationship with each other,” he says. “They’re doing everything they possibly can to minimize the effect [of late blight] and to try to eradicate it. They view it as a community disease.”
