Potato Board conducts cut-seed trials overseas

Farm and Ranch Report December 21, 2011 This was the first year the U.S. Potato Board conducted cut-seed potato trials overseas. The USPB’s Sarah Mahler says those trials were done in Sri Lanka, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic. Those countries have imported seed potatoes from Europe for over 30 years.

Mahler: “European seed exporters sell smaller size seed that is planted as whole seed pieces so growers in these markets are unfamiliar with how to cut seed and plant it. It will take several years for the effort to convince growers in these markets to change their growing practices. However, if the effort isn‘t taken then we will never make these changes. We see that there will be some advantages for U.S. growers to send larger sized seed at a lower cost if we can get growers in these markets to cut seed potatoes. So, we think in the long run we will see a greater amount of U.S. seed potatoes being exported.”

And how did the first year of the trails go?

Mahler: “We did see some success in being able to educate the growers in these markets in cutting seed potatoes. The trials resulted in that there was no statistical difference between the cut-seed planting from the whole seed planting, however the larger sized seed that is being cut is able to shipped to these markets at a lower cost.”

Mahler says many of the growers are excited about having the option to use cut-seed.

That’s the U.S. Potato Update. Brought to you by the United States Potato Board, maximizing return on grower investment. I’m Bob Hoff for Northwest Aginfo Net.