Recent storm damages potato yields, affects prices 

How severe hail and rain storms that recently damaged thousands of Eastern Idaho potato acres will impact the state’s spud yields and prices remains to be seen, United Potato Growers of Idaho Chief Executive Officer and President Jerry Wright told area growers, shippers and processors meeting in Idaho Falls on Wednesday, July 8.

UPGI projects statewide planted potato acreage for the 2009-2010 growing year totals nearly 315,000 acres or a 4.6 percent increase over the approximately 300,000 acres counted by UPGI in 2008-2009. At least 10,000 acres in this coming year’s projected increase are contracted acreage for dehydrated processing.     

About 25,250 potato acres were in the path of a Father’s Day storm that swept from Raft River through American Falls, the Fort Hall Indian Reservation and South Blackfoot. Best estimates were that about 10,000 acres were seriously damaged and 50 percent or more of those planted fields destroyed with “nothing left,” Wright said.

On the Fourth of July, another destructive storm front marched through American Falls and the south end of the reservation into Tyhee and Chubbuck, ravaging 50 percent of those fields. On Tuesday, July 7, crop damage was afflicted in Bonneville and South Jefferson counties in the Upper Snake River Valley, particularly hitting Osgood, Hamer and Ammon.

"Trying to assess the yield and how many acres will be harvested is anybody’s guess, to be honest,” Wright said, noting some damaged areas have shown new growth a week later.

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