Manitoba started processing new crop potatoes

In Manitoba, harvest of processing potatoes is underway.

"We're right on track,"says Brian Wilson, potato specialist with Manitoba Agriculture. "All that heat that we got in April let them get off to a good start and now they're going into the processing plant."

The Simplot plant switched from old crop to new crop last week, meaning potatoes can be shipped directly to the processor from the field. Harvest of storage potatoes will only begin in September when temperatures have dropped.

Wilson says almost all potato growers now have active late blight infections on some of their acres. He says the battle against the major disease will continue right into storage.