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Sustainability

Our Commitment to Sustainability

We use safe and sustainable farming methods. Our fields are planted with a potato crop once every three to four years and improve on soil nutrition and increase fiber content, rotational cover crops are planted. This added organic matter leads to healthy soil, which is key to growing flavourful and nutritious potatoes. The organic matter also helps to prevent soil erosion while creating a natural filtering system to protect our waterways by reducing run off.

We value the environment and do our part to protect the land and sea.

Another surprising way that we protect the environment on our farm is by growing varieties that require less fertilizer. Our potato varieties can reach maturity in 120 days or less allowing early harvest and earlier planting of cover crops. During the winter months, we use cover crops (such as winter wheat) to protect the soil from eroding from wind, heavy rains and spring snow melt. The roots and stubble of the various cover crops act as a shield between the elements and the soil.

We are committed to protecting our red Prince Edward Island soil because that’s the secret that makes our potatoes stand out from the rest of the world’s with their delicious and distinctive flavour.

Keenan Rollo Bay Holdings LTD Sustainability
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Project WEBs

Potato crop acreage on PEI has increased rapidly over the past decade, which has contributed to increased nitrate levels in drinking water, especially in areas with intensive agricultural production.

We care deeply about protecting the environment, so were were pleased to be part of Project WEBs.

Rollo Bay Holdings, with two other Island potato producers, has partnered with a number of environmental organizations and educational institutions in a project called Project WEBs. Project WEBs (Watershed Evaluation of Beneficial Management Practices) measure water quality impacts of selected beneficial management practices (BMPs) within seven watersheds across Canada.

This three-year study within the Souris River Watershed will evaluate the watershed scale effects of using spring ploughing versus fall ploughing following a hay crop in a potato-grain-hay rotation.

The theory is that by reducing the over-winter nitrogen leaching losses from agricultural soils, more nitrogen will be available for the next cropping season. This results in less fertilizer input.