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14 POTATO GROWER | IDAHO ANNUAL 2017 BY ALAN WESTRA SOUTHEAST AREA MANAGER, IDAHO CROP IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION BY ALAN WESTRA SOUTHEAST AREA MANAGER, IDAHO CROP IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION A t the conclusion of the second round of field inspections, a total of 32,587 acres were accepted for seed potato certification this year in Idaho. This is down approximately 2.2 percent from last year. Excluding proprietary genetics, the 2017 acreage accepted for certification represents a total of 148 varieties, selections and advanced clones. There was some movement in varietal acreage in 2017. The top varieties were Russet Burbank (39 percent of total), Russet Norkotah (all strains, 17 percent of total), Ranger Russet (11 percent), Clearwater Russet (3.1 percent), Alturas (2.8 percent) and Umatilla Russet (2.85 percent). Acreage of Russet Burbank and Russet Norkotah are essentially unchanged from 2016. There was a significant increase this year in the acreage of Clearwater Russet (42 percent increase from 2016), while acreage of Ranger Russet, Alturas and Umatilla Russet was reduced significantly (down 7.5, 30 and 28 percent, respectively). A complete listing of this year's seed potato crop is available in the 2017 Idaho Certified Seed Potato Directory, posted on the Idaho Crop Improvement website at www.idahocrop.com. Planting this year was normal for many growers, with only minor delays due to weather. At the time of writing this article, harvest is slowed due to rain. Growers are reporting normal to very good yields. Quality going into storage is reported as good to excellent. Seed health appears to be steady from 2016, with normal amounts of potato virus Y and zero bacterial ring rot detections during field inspections. Seed availability is predicted to be essentially unchanged from 2016. TOP 10 SEED VARIETIES GROWN IN IDAHO VARIETY 2017 ACRES 1. RUSSET BURBANK (ALL STRAINS) .........12,730.29 2. RUSSET NORKOTAH (ALL STRAINS) ......... 5,342.11 3. RANGER RUSSET (ALL STRAINS) ............3,693.60 4. CLEARWATER RUSSET ......................... 1,008.51 5. ALTURAS ........................................... 898.18 6. UMATILLA RUSSET ............................... 897.80 7. SHEPODY ..........................................794.03 8. DARK RED NORLAND ............................506.35 9. AGATA .............................................. 375.30 10. NORTHWEST NORKOTAH 90 ....................265.62