6-10 IAT State of Spuds

 The state of the state of Idaho’s 2013 potato crop.

 I always enjoy talking with  Frank Muir, executive director of the Idaho Potato Commission. No pun intended, he is always Frank, decisive and articulate. So when you ask for a state of the state you don’t get the kind of run around that you get at the highest levels of government if you know what I mean. But this is about potatoes, not the smooth politicians in Washington. Anyway we’ve had some weird  weather conditions and Frank fills us in: “ For the current crop, it looks like it had a little impact on our emerging crop because of weather conditions. Early on the east side of the state experienced some drive periods and a lot of wind so that got us a little bit behind there and on the west side, we had a bit of a surprise with a freeze in early May. That was kind of unusual but to summarize the impact our growers estimate  they are just a little bit behind. The emergence is a little slow and obviously the freeze had a bit of an impact and could have an impact on those acres that were affected later on in terms of yield and size. We have had a lot of recent rain, particularly on the east side of the state. Given that some of the uncertainties of Mother Nature, so far the harvest is moving along pretty well.