New Brunswick scientists develop insect-resistant potato plants

Jan 17, 2018

The plants can help producers manage Colorado potato beetles

By Diego Flammini
News Reporter
Farms.com

New Brunswick potato farmers may have another tool in the fight against a damaging pest.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) researchers have developed two varieties of potato plants that are resistant to Colorado potato beetles.

Scientists bred a species in the wild potato family with common commercial varieties to create a plant the beetles wouldn’t enjoy eating, according to Dr. Helen Tai, an AAFC scientist involved with the project.

Colorado potato beetles can destroy up to 50 per cent of potato yields, Tai said. So being able to protect potatoes is good news for farmers and the provincial economy.

“The potato is worth $1 billion to the economy, so a 30 to 50 per cent loss in yield is a fairy significant one across the board,” she told Global News yesterday. “Some of the profit margins are not that high on potato (farms). So if you do suffer (a high percentage loss) in yield, it’s pretty hard to absorb in your farm operation.”

Producers are encouraged by the possibility of these beetle-resistant plants, which are in the commercial testing phase.

“We’ve had issues with these pests in the past, so we spend about $20,000 per year on insecticides to keep them away,” Richard Strang, CEO of Strang Produce Inc. in Malden, NB told Farms.com today. “This (development) would be a huge benefit to potato farmers and would allow us to reduce our operating costs.”

New Brunswick’s potato industry in 2016, according to Statistics Canada:

The province was home to 144 potato farms
Farmers seeded more than 19,000 hectares of potatoes
Growers harvested more than 650,000 tonnes of the crop
Producers averaged a yield of about 34 tonnes per hectare
The province exported more than $47 million worth of fresh potatoes

Top photo: Colorado potato beetle

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.