IDAHO FALLS, Idaho, April 21 (UPI) -- Idaho potato farmers say too much of a good thing last year may see them dumping excess spuds to make way for a new crop in 2010.
Experts say farmers had such a successful season in 2009 the surplus is the greatest since 2001, KIFI-TV, Idaho Falls, reported Wednesday.
Faced with such a glut, many farmers choose to dump the surplus.
"We didn't plant that many more spuds, but because the growing conditions we had that much increased in yields it put us at a surplus," Gale Harding of the University of Idaho Ag Extension Office said. "The only other alternatives besides feeding the cattle are to take them out and dump them some place and then bury them.
"It's really a hardship on our agriculture because these farmers are receiving pennies on the dollar for all the major investment they had growing their crops," Harding said.
Other agriculture experts agree.
"It's inevitable we will be dumping spuds on the ground this year," John Thompson of the Idaho Farm Bureau said.
