August 7, 2009

Nebraska Potatoes

Market Snapshot*

The U.S. Department of Agriculture was not yet listing prices for Nebraska potatoes. Following are prices for 50-pound cartons of 2008 crop russet potatoes from Colorado's San Luis Valley:

Sizes 40, 50, 60 and 70, mostly $13; 80s, mostly $11-11.50; 90s, mostly $9.50; 100s, mostly $9.

* Prices from the USDA's Fruit & Vegetable Market News, Aug. 5.

The Shipping Scene

Spotty hailstorms and cool weather in Nebraska during the spring and early summer will affect some of the state's potato crop this year, but fields that escaped damage should have excellent size and quality, growers say.

"It's been a very different year," said Tim May, president of Frenchman Valley Produce Inc. in Imperial. "It seems like every night for awhile, people had hail damage."

Yields will be down in some fields, he said, "But for the most part, the crop looks pretty good."

Weather has been cooler than normal this season. In fact, until Tuesday of this week, the southwestern part of the state saw only two days with temperatures in the 90s, he said. But weather finally is beginning to warm up.

May estimated that Frenchman Valley Produce lost only about 2% of its crop, but some other fields suffered more severe damage.

The company now is picking in Kansas and will transition to Nebraska around Aug. 14, on schedule, with no gap between the two growing areas, May said.

The company grows mainly the norkotah variety and also has some yukon golds and processer varieties.

Hail-damaged fields may produce some small sizes early on, but sizing should improve as the season progresses, he said.

Because of the cool weather, the potatoes should have "great confirmation," May said, which means a nice, blocky shape rather than the elongated form that hot weather can cause.

Harvesting should continue until early October, then the company will ship out of storage until February or March.

The new potato crop tends to attract more attention at retail than storage potatoes, he said. Internal defects in new potatoes are not as common as in those that have been stored for eight to 12 months.

Western Potatoes Inc., which grows seed potatoes, chippers and occasional table stock in Alliance, will start harvesting just after Labor Day, said Jim Allen, general manager.

The company was recovering from hail that hit in early June, and one field suffered hail damage just this week. Spotty hailstorms are not unusual in Nebraska, he said.

In all, about 10% of the firm's crop likely will be affected by hail. The rest should be of average quality and size, and volume should be similar to last year.

The good news is that weather has been fairly cool with no temperatures topping 100 degrees so far, Allen said.

Joe Schekall, president of Schekall Seed Potatoes Inc. in Hemingford, said potatoes in the western part of the state are running six to 10 days behind schedule because of the cool spring weather.

Summertime growing conditions for the company, which grows seed potatoes, were excellent, however, and Schekall is hopeful that the crop will make up for lost time. Harvesting must start no later than Sept. 10 so that picking will be completed by Oct. 6.

That's "the end of time," for the crop, he said, because weather will turn cold once again after that point.

Schekall does not expect this year's volume out of Nebraska to exceed last year's because of the late crop. Yields will depend on weather conditions for the remainder of August and how the crop develops.

"We'll be lucky to make our baseline yields," he said.

Sizing of the company's seed potatoes is just right, he said. "You don't want big potatoes for seed," he said. The seed potatoes go into storage and are shipped out in the spring.

(By Tom Burfield, Western correspondent for The Packer. The Packer and Red Book Credit Services are part of food360º, a division of Vance Publishing Corp., Lincolnshire, Ill.)

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