Outlook good for yield from Idaho potato fields

BLACKFOOT, Idaho – If this year’s early harvest is a guide, it appears the eastern Idaho potato fields will produce a better than average yield.

Most growers won’t start harvesting until mid-September, but some farmers with products headed to chip makers already have been harvesting for more than a week.

Bill Martin, a Blackfoot grower, said his crew is digging and sorting Ranger Russet potatoes; soon to become french fries at a Lamb Weston processing plant.

Although they’ll continue to harvest the Ranger Russets for about another week, Martin doesn’t expect to finish harvesting until about Oct. 10.

“My dad used to dig for two weeks and be done,” Martin said. “We dig for dang near two months. We never quit from now on.”

Martin says cooler temperatures will allow him to harvest all day long without worrying about damaging the rest of his crop that is still in the ground.

This summer’s average weather has been good for the crops, he said.

“They are pretty good potatoes,” he said. “Not the well-above-average that we hoped for with this wonderful summer we’ve been having, but they are a little above average.”

Keith Frank, a spokesman for the Potato Growers of Idaho, said the majority of growers are still killing vines, which helps loosen the tuber, sets the skin and decreases chances for disease.

Frank expects most farmers will start harvesting earlier than the October dates seen the last couple of extended hot summers, but only by a couple of weeks.

He also said spot market prices are likely to be better this year because demand has increased and interest in Atkins-style diets appears to have leveled out.

For Aberdeen farmer Nic Behrend, who planted 1,700 acres this year, the harvest is still a few weeks away. He is also pleased with the cooler temperatures, providing it doesn’t get too cold at night.

“As long as it doesn’t freeze, cool is fine,” Behrend said.

For Behrend, the market price doesn’t matter as much because all of his potatoes are pre-contracted.

But for Martin, prices matter a lot. A third of his spuds are contracted while the rest will be sold on the open market.

“I think it’s shaping up to be a fair year,” he said. “It started out better and slipped, but it always does that around this time of year.”