PEI Potato Farm fined for crop rotation violations

A western Prince County (Prince Edward Island, Canada) farm operation has pleaded guilty to failing to properly rotate its crops in one of their fields.

D.S. Ellis Inc. was originally charged with one count of breaching the P.E.I. Crop Rotation Act and one count under the Environmental Protection Act, though the Crown dropped the latter charge after the guilty plea.

The O’Leary-based farm has been ordered to pay a fine of $8,300, plus a $75 victims surcharge. It has six months to pay.

The charges stem from July 29, 2013, and a fish kill in the Mill River.

During the investigation, conservation officers noted a nearby potato field of concern, about 9.3 hectares in the community of Howlan, and eventually found that the leaser, D.S. Ellis Inc., had planted the same crop there in 2011 and 2013.

The P.E.I. Crop Rotation Act states that cash crops must be on a three-year rotation and the same crop cannot be planted in the same field, larger than one hectare, within those three years.