It has been my privilege to be part of the agriculture community in Taber, Alberta for a long time. It will be 30 years in southern Alberta next spring. I've had an exciting career getting to be a part of the special crop world and seeing the transitions that have taken place over the years! A very good friend told me once ”the potato will never reveal all of its secrets”. How true a statement. Look at our growing season and that alone is so variable that just because it worked one year does not mean it will be that way every year. The joy of farming! The only thing consistent is the inconsistency.

As I have watched, and hopefully learned, there are things I have seen that I hope we can use together to help overcome many obstacles that we do have control over. Over the years we have tried new products that have come through the system. Generally I can say the big three: Bayer, Syngenta, and BASF, have led the charge and they are pretty reliable products, their programming is quite enticing as well, but what about all the others? You have all the post-patent products, the world of biologicals has gone crazy, there are one hit wonders that have brought a single product to the table. Over the winter and into spring I have been approached by numerous companies that are going to "revolutionize our industry". "Do I want to do a trial?", "It’s only 7.00/acre", and "the return is immense". What do we do with this? I have tried numerous products, but in our potato world I am not sure that I can say one way or the other they've attributed to an increase in quantity or quality. I’m not saying they are good or bad, I’m saying I don’t know.

The most used statement with so many trials is “I didn’t see any thing”. This year I am trying to eliminate a lot of the guess work. I bought a one row digger so I can go in and take three samples of treated and three of non treated. I will wash, size, grade and try to determine if there is truly something to the trial products. As you also know, one year is better than nothing but it will take three to determine consistency. This year, thanks to my cooperators, we have trials of biological and fungi products that I believe are have a good name behind them. We have taken NDVI and soil tests to get the trials underway. We will follow them through and see the outcome. A lady from AgCanada named it my BioBomb, because of the concoction I made up. My initial thoughts are quite positive, but as I said: do we have more or better? Vines and stalks are not worth anything. It’s the end product that matters. As we go through this season, I will keep you current on the situations. There will be results as we go along throughout the season. Check back here and join me on this adventure!! That statement might be an indicator of how little it takes for me to get excited about what I get to do.

Hal Reed

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"

Genesis 1:1