In January, USDA-NASS made large adjustments in fall potato production estimates in North Dakota and Minnesota. North Dakota gained 960,000 hundredweight (cwt.) while Minnesota saw the opposite and was estimated to drop to 870,000 cwt.
Bruce Huffaker, a potato analyst stated, "USDA has started to recognize the bipolar nature of the state's 2016 potato crop. Heavy rains caused severe damage to crops in the Red River Valley, but irrigated crops grown further west produced record, or near-record yields." Due to this, the USDA decided to up the previously low figure.
Huffmaker also discussed the drop in Minnesota stating, "The USDA has developed a habit of overestimating the state's potato area early in the season, only to revise the number downward in January. This is the third consecutive year that USDA has revised the state's harvested area down by a significant amount, on January 1."
While the adjustments make huge impacts at the state level, the changes had little effect on the total US production. Adding up all production shows a slight increase from 405.17 million cwt. to 405.95 million cwt.
source: agweek.com
