Losses in potato storage equate to losses of the crop and money. Having a working knowledge of how much you have to start with and what is causing the losses in storage will allow management to be fine-tuned to minimize loss and maintain quality.

Idaho was again ranked as the No. 1 state in U.S. potato production, according to the USDA Annual Potato Summary for 2022, released in September.

It turns out that the diners' question “Do you want fries or chips?” starts not in the kitchen, but with the breeder.

Doug Gross specializes in all things potatoes on his Wilder farm. “We learned early that there were some things I wasn’t good at and shouldn’t be growing,” he says. Rather than doubling down on those weaknesses, he focused on his strengths.

With the significant years-long drought in the Pacific Northwest, Idaho water users have once again had to fine-tune water efficiency.

If you try to improve your farming or ranching practice and it doesn’t work, realize you had a good learning opportunity. With eyes open, who knows what great things you will learn from failure?

More regulations mean more cost, with no compensating price increase, and businesses sometimes struggle to keep up.

Potato varieties are developed constantly to help farmers raise quality raw products economically, but the process still takes about a decade.

“Using Agriculture Conservation Dogs to detect PVY and BRR” was a symposium topic at the annual Idaho Seed Potato Growers seminar in January. Andrea Parish gave the presentation/demonstration, using dogs she trained to sniff out potato diseases.