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F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 622 POTATO GROWER the seed potatoes. Post-harvest applica- tions should be done as soon as possible after harvest at labeled rates. One should manage the water volumes. Control of silver scurf is a bonus. There is conflicting evidence about the appli- cation on seed potatoes which Dr. Pederson suggested could be best miti- gated by strict adherence to the rate on the label. Processing The National Potato Council had invit- ed a processing grower from the Netherlands Jacco De Graaf who spoke about the situation with processing con- tracts in Europe. The family De Graaf grows processing potatoes sugar beets grass seed wheat and rent land to a tulip grower. They have two other sources of income. They sell electricity of their wind turbine and their farm is open for visitors of which most are Americans. Their website is http www.visitingfarm.com. Contracting potatoes is done when a representative of the processor contacts the growers individually. There is little or no negotiation. Price levels fluctuate a bit with the open market of last sea- son. The contract is for a maximum of 350 cwt per acre. Overage must be delivered at open market price. The contract price goes from 4.60 per cwt from the field to 7.93 per cwt at the end of the storage season in July. After July 15 the processor starts with the new crop that may have been growing under plastic to protect from frost and acceler- ate growth. The price for processing potatoes no longer reacts to adverse weather conditions as it did before. Higher prices have become more of an exception which is a reason to increase the volumes under contract. Different countries have different habits. For example the Netherlands went from 50 to 80 under contract while Belgium is still at 50 under contracts. Mr. De Graaf also mentioned a major difference between potato crops in North America and Europe. Because the climate in Europe is a maritime climate with much rain and crops depending on rain the yields are more erratic. One advantage for the grower in Europe is the large number of processors in the relatively small area of Western Europe. The growers have a choice which processor they want to grow for.