McCain Foods’ nurse crop project may help increase potato yields

Representatives from McCain Foods are excited about a new project under way in Aroostook County that has some farmers planting their usual acreage of potatoes right on top of a bed of winter rye, barley or oats.

The “nurse crop” project is underway in 10 to 12 spots in The County, Brianne O’Leary, senior field representative for McCain Food said during a recent interview.

The planting project is part of the Drive for 45, which is a potato industry initiative in Maine and New Brunswick aimed at increasing potato yields by 45 hundredweight per acre over several years to compete with growers from western states where yields can be twice what they are in the East.

The nurse crop idea was visualized and tried first in Grand Falls, New Brunswick, by McCain Agronomist Gilles Moreau.

The process works by first spreading the winter rye, or other selected nurse crop, over a potato field just before the potatoes are planted. The winter rye establishes quickly, according to O’Leary, germinating in about five to six days. That crop then grows for about three weeks, she said, protecting the soil from erosion during rainy periods. When growers start to cultivate their potato crop, the rye gets incorporated back into the soil.

During Moreau’s first year of the nurse crop trial, O’Leary said, he saw a significant yield increase on his half acre plot. After the success Moreau experienced, McCain Foods greenlit the project for growers to try on both sides of the border.

In all, about 10 growers from Maine and seven growers from New Brunswick decided to seed a nurse crop along with their potato crop on a trial plot on their own farms this year, O’Leary said. One of the biggest benefits of doing so is soil conservation.