N.D. potato production down 16 percent

FARGO — North Dakota’s 2009 potato crop is estimated at 19.1 million hundredweight, down 16 percent from last year and the lowest production in nine years.

The Agriculture Department says harvested acres are down 7 percent, and the average yield is down 9 percent from last year’s record of 280 hundredweight per acre.

Russets account for 43 percent of the production in North Dakota, with whites at 33 percent and reds at 23 percent.

Production of fall potatoes nationwide is pegged at 394 million hundredweight, up 4 percent from last year.

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