12/05/07 PCN confirmed in 8th Idaho field

The federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service says potato cyst nematode has been confirmed in another Bingham County field, the eighth one to be infected. The 145 acre field is adjacent to two other infested fields but the news was not surprising to Idaho Department of Agriculture's Mike Cooper. COOPER "And it's farmed by a farmer that already had two infested fields." Nearly 95 hundred soil samples were taken from seven infected fields prior to fumigation treatment last summer and over 11 thousand 600 post treatment samples were taken. No crops were planted in the fields except for oil radish which released a compound that is toxic to PCN after it was tilled into the soil. COOPER "This year if we can get on the ground as soon as the soil temperature is up there and if it's early enough then the growers might have a chance to actually get a wheat crop in. It might be a short crop. We'll have to do fumigation and as soon as that's done and they remove the tarps they can plant." Cooper says 125 fields in Bingham, Bonneville and Jefferson counties were added to the regulated area because they were farmed by an operator the same year he farmed one of the infested fields. Equipment moving from regulated areas has to be cleaned and certified by USDA or ISDA. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott