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Potato blight and seed certification bills pass Senate, now in Assembly

Two Wisconsin bills impacting potato producers might become law during this growing season.  One is the “Fight the Blight” bill, which Senator Patrick Testin says changes the response times for farmers when late blight is detected.  “The farmers whose field is impacted has 24 hours to treat it with an anti-spore (agent), and if that treatment doesn’t take within 72 hours, then the field has to be destroyed just to make sure that the contagion doesn’t spread.”

The current state law allows growers up to 10 days to deal with late blight, but Testin says research supports the change.  “We’ve discovered by scientific research by Dr. Amanda J. Gevins (University of Wisconsin)  is that 10 days is far too long and it allows the spores to spread and potentially contaminate more of the field or surrounding fields.”

The other bill makes seed potato certification mandatory instead of voluntary, like Idaho and Montana.  Testin says the Wisconsin potato growers support the changes.

Both bills have passed the State Senate and are scheduled for hearings in the State Assembly June 14th.  Testin says both bills might be signed into law yet this growing season.

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