MSU Potato
Advisory Committee and MPIA Board of Director’s meeting
The
meeting was held at the Holiday Inn in Bozeman on January 30. Present were Steve Streich (Chairman), Jack
Lake, Steve Maughan, Bill Cottom, Bob Starkel, John Sherwood, Arnold Foust,
Kathryn Foust, Art Mangels, Bill Kimm, John Venhuizen, Sid Schutter, Dave
Taylor, Steve Baril, Elaine Nichols, Eileen Carpenter, Anna Sun and Mike
Sun. Minutes of the meeting can be obtained
by calling the MSU Potato Certification Office at 994-3150.
MPIA Business
1.
Jack Lake is the new president of the MPIA for 2004. Along with that, he will automatically become
the chairman of the MSU Advisory Board.
Dr. John Sherwood continues to serve as the Secretary of the MSU Advisory
Board.
2.
Arnold
and Kathryn Foust, Chairs of the 2003 Montana Seed Potato Seminar, gave a brief
report on the seminar, including the difference in revenues and expenses. Everything was positive. They both were
applauded for a job well done.
3.
The
2004 Montana Seed Potato Seminar will be held on November 11 and 12, in Bozeman. District II (Gallatin County) growers will host the meeting.
Changes in MSU
Seed Potato Certification Rules and Regulations
The MSU Advisory Board has recommended that,
for out-of-state shipping only, the maximum tolerance for PVY in Generation 2 classes of all seed potato
varieties be changed from 0.5% to 1%.
This
recommendation will go to the Montana growers for approval, to MSU legal counsel for review,
then to the MSU President for signature.
Once all is done, it will become part of the
2004 MSU Seed Potato Certification Rules.
Also, for seed
of all classes to be planted back in Montana, the
maximum tolerance for PVY remains 0.5% ELISA tests.
MPIA
District Directors are hereby requested to conduct respective District meetings
and send the meeting minutes to the MSU Seed Potato Certification Office.
Hawaii Test
Results
of the Post-harvest grow-out test in Hawaii were sent out in time for growers to take them to the Moses Lake meeting. The
results included visual inspection and ELISA tests for PVY, PVY-n, and GMO. There was no GMO and PVY-n detected by ELISA; also, no potato leaf roll and very little mosaic were
found in the visual inspection.
The
Hawaii grow-out plot was planted around November 20. By December 25, Russet Burbank had grown to
10 inches high! The plants grew
beautifully and were not damaged by the unusual amount of rainfall, more than
30 inches, which hit Oahu island between the last week of
2003 and the first week of 2004. Aloun
Farm’s people did a good job in managing the potatoes for us.
Many
Montana seed potato growers, Washington growers, and Idaho growers came to visit the Montana potatoes and Aloun Farm.
Mr. and Mrs. Mike Stoker of Potato Country also came to visit the
plot. They both came as invited guests
by Everitt Foust and the seminar committee.
Montana’s Hawaii grow-out test was reported in the article, “Testing Seed
in Paradise”, in the February Issue of Potato Country magazine.
By
the way, to ensure the Hawaii tests were accurate, the results of ELISA tests were precisely compared to that of the summer
tests; for inconsistencies, leaf samples were re-picked for re-test. It took a lot of time to do, but it was
necessary. A special thanks should be
given to Susie
Siemsen, who
spent many hours of her own time to get the virus testing done, Elaine Nichols,
who went to help Anna Sun pick leaves and didn’t get a day off from picking
leaves in Oahu, and Anna Sun, who worked hard to get the leaves picked and
re-picked for the lab testing. Without
them, the results would not have been done in time for the Moses Lake meeting.
National Seed
Potato Certification Meetings
The seed potato certification officials,
the certification and disease management subcommittee of National Potato
Council, and eight growers met on December 8, in Long Beach, CA.
Sid Schutter and Mike Sun attended the meeting. Three topics of discussion concerned Montana: the potato virus management plan, the
potato industry improvement plan, and the necrotic virus management plan.
Potato Virus
Management Plan
There
is an urgency to get this plan in place because testing requirements for tuber
necrotic virus complexes and PVY-n may become obstacles for trade. Much of the discussion focused on using the
same control protocol at the border.
Consensus is that an audited self-inspection program should be available
and acceptable to go both ways across the border.
Potato Industry Improvement Plan. This
is a plan dealing with a national concept of seed potato certification to
develop a national overview over the state seed potato certification
programs. A final draft of a memorandum
of understanding between APHIS and the State Plant Health authorities were
discussed in February during the NPC meeting in Washington, D.C. Sid Schutter
represented Montana at the NPC meeting.
Necrotic Virus Management Plan. The diseases addressed in this plan are the
PVY complex, Potato Mop-top virus, and Tobacco Rattle virus. All of these viruses can cause necrotic
symptoms in potato tubers and are drawing great attention in potato trade. Discussions included research needs such as
varieties, vector efficiency, testing procedures, inspection procedures, and
putting together reference materials for inspectors to know which tuber
necrotic symptoms should be checked further.
Obituary
MPIA District IV Director, Mr. Wayne
Wright Maughan, passed away on the evening of February 19, in Fort Benton, after a long illness. He is survived by his wife,
Geraldine, 10 children, and 37 grandchildren.
Wayne was born Jan. 25, 1935, in Ronan,
Montana. He married
Geraldine Swainston in Cardston, Alberta, Canada in 1955.
Wayne started raising seed potatoes in Ronan in 1976 and moved
to Fort Benton in 1998, where he, his wife Geraldine, son Steve and
families built a beautiful seed potato farm.
He was elected as Director in 2002.
In his short tenure as Director, he stressed high standards for Montana’s seed potato certification rules and regulations and was
very much concerned with fair trade between the U.S. and Canada.
“Wayne has always loved working with the soil” Mrs. Maughan
wrote, “ As a child, he gained the reputation for
being a good worker and not wanting to quit until the job was done, be it
picking strawberries or pulling weeds. He always wanted to be a farmer and even
when working in town, he rented some land to farm. Mornings and evenings were spent taking care
of the growing crops. His first field of
potatoes was grown in Quincy, Washington. After moving back
to Ronan in 1963, he worked on his dad’s farm for a time and then went to work
at Peavey Company where he was Assistant Manager and Manager of the Fertilizer
plant. In 1973, he quit his job in town
to farm full time. Having worked closely
with potato farmers with his ‘town job’, he decided to try his luck at raising
seed potatoes in 1976, and they have been a main crop since that time”.
