By DOUG GRAVES

Ohio Correspondent

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and those doing the cooking may want to set aside a little extra change for the mashed potatoes.

 Heavy rains (and even a blizzard) that hit Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota have sent potato harvesters fleeing from their clay-drenched soils. The grounds in these parts are simply too wet and starting to freeze. Some growers have had to abandon their tractors in over-saturated fields.

Some Idaho potato leaders project 20 percent damage there. In North Dakota in mid-October, only 64 percent of the state’s potatoes had been harvested, compared with last year when 89 percent of the state’s potatoes were in the bin. In Minnesota, 90 percent of the potatoes were harvested.

 A witness to this devastation is Carl Hoverson, who operates one of the largest potato farms in Grand Forks County, N.D.

 “It’s one of the best crops we’ve ever had, but we were hit with about 17 inches of rain and another 20 inches of snow since Sept. 1,” Hoverson said. “I have a couple thousand acres worth of potatoes still sitting in the mud. The bad thing is once they get cold, they won’t fry really well. Once they start getting frost damage, then it’s probably getting to be too late. It’s the first year since 1983 that we wouldn’t finish the harvest.”

 Under normal conditions, Hoverson and other potato growers have their harvest completed by Oct. 1, but this growing season the ground was too wet for crews to get into the fields.

 “The large bags of potatoes you see in your local grocery store need about 30 inches of irrigation a year, but we’ve far exceeded that this growing season,” said Andy Robinson, Extension Agronomist at North Dakota State University. “Here in the Red River Valley we have a clay content roughly 65 percent in our soil and the water doesn’t permeate well, it retains moisture. We’ve been bombarded by rain and it just won’t go away. We’re not like Ohio and Indiana. We don’t have that sandy and loamy soil that can handle precipitation much better.”

 “The temperatures are now dropping into the teens, causing the soil to freeze. And, with the continual frost we’ve been having it’s starting to freeze some of the tubers that are near the top of the soil. People can expect to pay more for potatoes for Thanksgiving and beyond. We’ve already witnessed that price increase,” Robinson said.

 “For us, it was a great growing season up until a month ago,” said Ted Kreis, Communications Director at the Northern Plains Potato Producers Association in East Grand Forks, Minn. “We were about 25 to 30 percent into our harvest but then we were hit with 10 to 15 inches of rain in a three-week period. Five of those inches fell in just one night. On top of that, on Oct. 10 we had a blizzard. Oh, we get blizzards but it was the earliest I’ve ever witnessed”

 Adding to the problem was the six inches of rain and three feet of snow that fell near the Canadian border.

 “Because of all the rain and the cold weather heading our way most of the harvest will come to an end this coming week,” Robinson said.

“We’ve already witnessed that price increase,” Robinson said. “Potatoes were at $20 per hundredweight in early September, and as of Oct. 24 they were between $30 to $40 hundredweight.”

 Potatoes remain the top vegetable crop in the United States. They are grown commercially in 30 states, but Idaho grows more potatoes than any other state, followed by Washington, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Colorado.

USDA statistics of potato acreage planted and harvested (2017) show that Idaho is the leading producer of potatoes with 310,000 acres. Washington is second at 170,000, followed by North Dakota (82,000) and Wisconsin (63,000).

For the Farm World readership areas, Michigan produces 47,000 acres of potatoes, followed by Illinois (8,100) and Ohio (1,300). Potato growers in these areas have not been affected by the weather.

According to the National Potato Council, potatoes grown in Washington, North Dakota, Michigan and Wisconsin make their way into major grocery chains across the United States, while most potatoes grown in other states make their way to local farmers markets and even potato chip manufacturers.

Ohio boasts the second-most potato chip manufacturers in the U.S. At least 10 potato chip companies fry and kettle-cook their potato chips in the Buckeye State. Pennsylvania has the most potato chip companies with 24.

Captions

Potato Photo 1 – Heavy rains in Idaho, North Dakota and parts of Minnesota have put a huge dent in this year’s potato harvest. Up to 30 percent of potatoes in these regions will go unharvested as fields like the one shown in this photo are under water. (photo courtesy North Dakota State University Extension)

Potato Photo 2 – Potato farmers work quickly to harvest what they can before the next rain (or even snow) enters the picture. Wet, saturated clay soils have forced many of these farmers to abandon their harvesters in the field. (photo courtesy North Dakota State University Extension)