Potato school

This year's Potato Conference, otherwise known as potato school, was a huge success. It was held at Idaho State University in Pocatello. I had a chance to continue my conversation with Travis Blacker, industry relations director for the Idaho Potato Commission, as he went over some of the important details. David Sparks, Idaho. Speaker2: Agg Today, I've always called it potato school. I think that's what people call it, and it's kind of funny, but that's what we call it, the Adult Potato Commission. Every year we invest about $1,000,000 into the University of Idaho. They can research these different topics. This is the time that the researchers have to have these different classes to report their findings and what they've researched. We have a booth here that we're able to talk with growers as they come walking through Nova and the other building. We have a hospitality suite where we offer some food and a chance to talk with the industry about the things that the Potato Commission is doing. The last time the USDA did their count, we've got about 600 potato growers in Idaho. Many of those growers come to this event. They're getting really good returns for their potatoes. Right now. The expenses are up. And so there's kind of a little situation there with expenses being up, but the returns are up. And so that's nice. The outlook right now, I think people are pretty optimistic. Demand's kind of slow. I think people are holding on to their potatoes, just kind of seeing what the market's going to do as far as next year. We are hoping that we get a lot more snowpack in the mountains. Our water situation's a little rough. It's been a good winter so far. We think the acres will be up next year. Speaker1: And this year it was all good at potato school.