The potato yield after harvest of the #AAFCPlowdownChallenge fields at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) Harrington Research Farm on Prince Edward Island was 169 cwt per acre, a Dec. 18 news release. That is compared to the provincial average of 311 cwt per acre of potatoes in 2023.
The field was grown using only nitrogen leftover from the previously harvested crop. It was called the #AAFCPlowdownChallenge and the goal was to educate the agriculture industry on the benefits of factoring in the previous crops’ leftover nitrogen to apply fertilizer more efficiently in potato crops, the release said.
AAFC Science Coordinator Scott Anderson and his team planted the Mountain Gem potato variety on a field at the AAFC Harrington Research Farm. Growers were encouraged to guess what the yield was going to be following harvest and grading later in the fall. The field was planted with red clover during summer 2022 and with a cover crop of barley and tillage radish planted in fall 2022.
“This yield result is very good, in our opinion. It shows the ability of the soil to provide nutrients from a previous crop, like red clover, to help grow potatoes,” Anderson said in the release.
P.E.I. cattle farmer, Paul Smallman, was the winner of the challenge with the closest guess of 177 tons per acre. Island potato farmer, Kevin Murray was the runner-up, with a guess of 117 tons per acre.
“In the past, I’ve planted red clover which adds nitrogen to the soil naturally, and I also use manure,” Smallman said in the release. “I figured without manure, the yield would be half of what it normally would be, and I was pretty close!”
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