Alberta has taken on a new title in the agriculture world by defining itself as Canada’s home of the spud.
“We have just taken over P.E.I., not in acres that we grow, but the amount of potatoes that we produce,” said Ashley Wagenaar, a conservation agronomist with Farming Smarter.
“We are now Canada’s largest potato producing region.”
Farming Smarter is a research group based out of Lethbridge County. Together with local farmers, the group is finding new ways to ensure potato yields are as efficient as possible, especially considering the challenges facing growers.
“We sometimes struggle with wind erosion, for example, especially in potatoes because they leave some bare soils and (researchers) are working extremely hard to mitigate that with extra residue, different cover crops in the fall and then doing it in a way that we can really promote a strong, healthy potato economy here,” said Wagenaar.
She says a healthy potato economy is certainly realistic and impactful for producers and consumers in Alberta.
“We’re going to see more potatoes in this region and we’re going to expand out into regions that haven’t seen potatoes before. So, we want to make sure that we’re doing it in a way that can sustain long-term.”
However, an invasive and problematic weed is growing in the fields, rising from the soil to consume crop revenue.
“Kochia is one of our biggest weed problems on the prairies. In fact, it might be one of the biggest problems for crop reduction on the prairies. It’s a very competitive weed. It can handle salinity, it can handle heat,” said Lewis Baarda, a research manager with Farming Smarter.
A Kochia plant in a canola field.
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While kochia has traditionally been managed with herbicides, the weed has evolved in recent years to become even stronger and resisitant.
“It no longer gets killed by the herbicides. With this trial here right now, we’re looking at other approaches to pair with herbicides or even replace herbicides for controlling kochia.”
Now, Farming Smarter is finding the desired solutions alongside other farmers.
“We’re happy to have a multi-year trial on this. We’ll go through a three-year rotation, look at different approaches to control kochia and we’ll see how that affects the weed seed bed, the weeds that are in the soil and how much plant populations we get next year and the year after,” said Baarda.
He says problem weeds like kochia can severely damage the economy.
“It’s critical to have that information so farmers can make decisions because if (the research area filled with kochia) is a chunk of your field, you’re getting no revenue off of this.
“It’s so important to have some control measures or even a long-term remediation strategy that’s going to help us deal with kochia.”