Potato Minute Page 1

May 1, 2017

50 Years of Growing

& Working Together P

OT

AT

O M

INU

TE

From the desk of the Executive Director For many years now, people that

have spent their lifetime in agriculture

have commented that “farming is

changing, things are not the same

anymore.” This entire discussion was

brought to the forefront with the

introduction of “Bill 6” and the many

changes that have been going on over

the last 10-15 years in our Industry.

Agriculture has always been a business, it

just happens to be run by families and, in

most cases, multi-generational ones. The

future of these businesses is the sons and

daughters or grandchildren that will

continue on with the legacy. Somewhere

in this change or transition comes a very

important aspect of any business, one

that many farms are now struggling with.

I am talking about the reams and reams of

paperwork that has to happen,

sometimes on a daily basis, in order for

the business to succeed and continue.

CanadaGAP, HACCP (Hazard Analysis

Critical Control Point), WCB (Workers’

Compensation Board), OH&S

(Occupational Health & Safety), EFP

(Environmental Farm Plan), PSI (Potato

Sustainability Initiative), IPM (Integrated

Pest Management) programs, BMP’s

(Beneficial Management Practices),

grower records, traceability records, mock

recalls, and many more that would fill up

this entire column, are a necessary part of

the farm business today. We are no

different than any other business that

exists today, ACCOUNTABILITY IS KEY.

Many producers have said that if change

is not practical then it is not sustainable.

This is so very true but sometimes we do

not get to decide the practicality of the

decision. As price takers, we just get to

implement the decision. The recent news

around NAFTA and free trade will

ultimately create some more issues

and decisions that will have to be

implemented at the ‘farm gate’ level.

Stay tuned for more changes to come.

April continues to be an extremely busy

month for the PGA. Once again, our

industry was well represented at Aggie

Days in Calgary and Lethbridge. Amazing

Ag in Edmonton is starting May 1st!

Under the careful planning and guidance

of Cindy Fletcher, the PGA’s Accounts &

Promotions Coordinator , our story is

being told to school children and the

general public across the province!

Planting records are now available on line

to be populated when you are done

planting. Please contact the office if you

require assistance.

Until next month,

Terence

Inside This Edition Seed Update - 2

PGA History & Cook

Book Update - 3

Aggie Days & Amazing Ag - 4

Fast-Tracking Traits for Improved

Potato Varieties - 5

Events & Office News - 6

Our Condolences - 6

Potato Minute Page 2

April Update

by Deb Hart

PGA Seed

Coordinator

Potato Minute Page 3

PGA History &

Cook Book

Update

Potato Minute Page 4

A big thank you to Feike & Wayne Veenstra at FW Seed Potatoes, for the seed donation to the Aggie Days in Calgary and Lethbridge this last month. Last year at the Aggie Days in Calgary, we found that the interest for the different varieties of seed was huge. We were happy to offer them again this year.

THANKS TO THESE FARMS THAT DONATED THEIR POTATOES FOR DISPLAY AT AGGIE DAYS IN LETHBRIDGE & CALGARY AND

AMAZING AG IN EDMONTON Phoenix Farms Ltd. - John Mans

CP Farms - Michel Camps

MTB Farms - Michiel Buijsse

Stolk Farms - Ed Stolk

Woordman Farms - Arjan Woordman Bruce & Ryan Fletcher by the PGA booth

at Aggie Days in Calgary

Helping in the booth in Calgary this year was Cindy’s husband Bruce, her son Ryan, along with a fellow Ag Student Paige who accompanied Cindy for the week! Wendy McDonald brought up seed from FW Seed Potatoes to hand out to the gardeners and took her shift in the booth on Saturday. Terence had the opportunity to represent the PGA on the opening day of the Lethbridge event, and Nancy Fehr from the office, as well as Ryan Fletcher, helped answer questions and talk potatoes on Wednesday.

Cindy is heading to Edmonton from May 1 – 4

th for AMAZING AG, where

Seed Coordinator Deb Hart will also be sharing her expertise along with Sandy Lewis of Lewis Farms. Sandy had also represented the industry at the Barrhead Women’s Show in March, and enjoyed it so much, she is back to help us again at AMAZING AG. A big thank you goes out to everyone involved in these endeavours.

Amazing Ag

& Aggie

Days

WE SHIFTED OUR FOCUS FROM NUTRITION, LIKE IN

YEARS PAST, TO TALK MORE ABOUT:

Choosing the right potato for the dish you want to make.

Focus on certified seed to have best results in your garden,

with tips on how to plant your seed to get the best

outcome in a potato crop.

The process industry and how French fries have more

nutrition than you think with the use of the right oils

for cooking. We also had our French fry cutter there,

which drew a lot of people to our table, most of them

wanting to try to make their own fries!

The kids thought the monitor was touch

screen and were playing with it, seeing all

the different facts that were being displayed

on a slideshow throughout the event.

Potato Minute Page 5

Benoit Bizimungu is quick to identify top breeding priorities for implementing marker-assisted selection at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s (AAFC) Fredericton Research and Development Centre.

The team’s first focus is on disease and nematode resistances that are difficult or expensive to screen using traditional methods; next come processing traits like specific gravity and chip colour after cold storage. Eventually, his team will look at agronomic traits.

These priorities are not necessarily based on the researchers’ preferences, but rather on the availability of genetic markers – in other words, markers linked to disease or pest resistance are easier to find because those traits tend to be genetically simple. Traits linked to processing qualities, such as chip colour, are a little more complex. Agronomic traits, such as yield, are more complex still, as they are under the influence of multiple genetic effects.

Bizimungu is a research scientist and a lead on a new project that will use DNA sequencing technology to improve the efficiency of potato breeding projects.

Supported through AAFC peer-review funding, the project is connected to the Integrated Potato Research-Development and Technology Transfer project, which runs from April 2015 to March 2019.

“Research activities are conducted in four streams, with a strong breeding component aimed to develop ‘eco-potato’ germplasm with suitable end-user traits,” Bizimungu says.

“What we are looking for in this project is the improvement of breeding efficiency, and breeders have always relied on many tools to develop a new variety. This new equipment is allowing us to genotype, to determine the sequence in key specific genes of interest, very rapidly, and to identify the desirable variants of genes underlying important traits.”

The new technology in question is a real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) machine that works as a “high-throughput genotyping platform” to help researchers screen for variants of DNA linked to traits of interest in large numbers of samples of genetic material.

“We’re able to fast-track traits to improve varieties and identify superior genetic combinations earlier in the breeding program than we would using conventional screening methods only,” Bizimungu says.

A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH

Fredericton researchers are not alone in this sophisticated approach to potato breeding. Bizimungu says the team is working in collaboration with other researchers developing markers both in Canada and internationally. “This lab is mostly for rapid routine screening, and we integrate new markers as they are developed by collaborators,” he says. “We try to keep ahead of the new

developments.”

In particular, Bizimungu’s lab is working with scientists and breeders from the United States. Many of the advances they are able to take advantage of are the result of a four-year United States Department of Agriculture project called the Solanaceae Coordinated Agricultural Project (SolCAP), which ran from 2008 to 2012. SolCAP aimed to translate genomic advances in other fields to American tomato and potato breeding programs; all of its results were made publicly available.

“The project resulted in excess of 20,000 genome-wide sets of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers,” Bizimungu says. “And we’re just starting to make good use of some of those.”

How does the process work? Using already-identified markers linked to traits of interest, the team develops primers to target those markers in samples using the real-time PCR machine. Samples that include traits of interest could end up in breeding programs later on.

The Fredericton team’s approach for using marker-assisted selection was to start with simply inherited traits like disease resistance. “In terms of applying this technology, we started with the markers that are available,” Bizimungu explains. “We started with disease resistance because these are under simple genetic control, but we expect more progress is being made for other, more complex traits as well.”

Bizimungu’s team has already started applying these new disease resistance traits to the breeding program. Later this year, they hope to start incorporating processing traits, which Bizimungu says are more complex, and can be affected by environmental factors.

Using information generated by SolCAP, the team plans to tackle specific gravity, chip colour and sugar levels in processing potato varieties.

Source: Potatoes in Canada

Benoit Bizimungu stands in front of an automated liquid handler, a piece of lab equipment that can prepare

more than 1,500 DNA samples in a matter of minutes. Photo by Photos courtesy of AAFC.

FAST-TRACKING TRAITS FOR IMPROVED POTATO VARIETIES

Potato Minute Page 6

Events & Office

News

Two ways to follow us on Twitter… @StaffPGA @AlbertaPotatoes Two ways to follow us on Facebook… @Pga Staff @Potato Growers of Alberta

The PGA assumes no responsibility for any errors in the information provided, nor assumes any liability for any damages incurred as a consequence,

directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents of the Potato Minute. Unless otherwise noted on an individual document, the PGA grants users permission to reproduce and distribute information in the Potato

Minute as long as the contents remain unaltered and as long as it is noted that the contents have been made available by the PGA. 6008 - 46 AVENUE

TABER, AB T1G 2B1 PHONE: 403-223-2262 E-MAIL: PGA@ALBERTAPOTATOES.CA FAX: 403-223-2268

2017 Advance Payment Program Applications for interest-free loans up to $100,000

through AAFC’s Advanced Payment Program will begin in

the next month. Please call the office to set up an

appointment to sign the paperwork and start your

application. Remember we need your AFSC “Letter of

Intent” or your complete “Statement of Coverage” to start

your application. Call

Cindy or Wendy for more

info or to set up a time to

sign your paperwork.

2017 Planting Season Photo by Michel Camps, CP Farms

PLANTING REPORTS ARE READY ON THE WEBSITE.

Please fill in your report as you go or once

you are finished planting. Thank you to the five

growers who have their reports in already!

If you need help with your login, please contact

the office at 403-223-2262

STORAGE REPORTS

We still require the changes to your storage

reports for our records. Please complete your report online.

OUR CONDOLENCES The Potato Growers of

Alberta membership and staff were deeply saddened

by the sudden passing of Evaline Vandenberg, oldest daughter of Jake

and Madelyn Rozendaal on April 18, 2017.

A donation in memory of Evaline may be made to: The Bethesda Home for Seniors 701-3A Street Picture Butte, AB T0K 1V0

Bruce & Ryan Fletcher talking about potatoes in Calgary at Aggie Days