Exploring the Crops of the Northern Region-Potatoes

As a continuation of the blog series, Exploring the Crops of the Northern Region, this week we will take a closer look at potatoes. Potatoes are an important crop in the northern region that provide nutrition, animal feed, and are used to make industrial products. Here we’ll take a closer look at them and dive into growth, production, and uses of that crop both domestically and globally.

Potatoes are grown throughout Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana, though different varieties are planted based on the region. The three primary types of potatoes are red, yellow, and russets. Each variety thrives in specific environments, making them an ideal crop for the vast area of the northern region. Along with their diversity in environment, each of these types of potatoes has added value in how they can be used.

The fact that potatoes have three main types contributes to how versatile they are. Each type, red, yellow, or russet, can be used best in a variety of ways. For example, russets are a longer potato, and this is one reason they are used to make french-fries. Meanwhile, yellow potatoes, which are much rounder and have a thinner skin than russets, are used for making potato chips. Similarly, red potatoes are naturally sweeter, and are great in a potato salad.

But human consumption is not all that potatoes are used for. They can also provide nutrition for animals and be used to make industrial products. As animal feed, potatoes can be made into silage along with other feed stuffs and fed to ruminant animals. In industrial usage, potatoes provide necessary starch to make glue and ethanol.

More specifically, potatoes are very important to the Northern Region. The Red River Valley is one of the largest producers of red potatoes used fresh in the United States. Roughly 400 million pounds of red potatoes are grown there every year. Additionally, in 2017 North Dakota produced roughly 2.7 billion pounds of potatoes while Minnesota grew 1.6 billion pounds!  Potatoes grown in our two states are not only for the fresh market but also frozen processing, chipping, and certified seed.

All in all, potatoes are a beneficial crop that have an economic and environmental impact on the northern region and beyond.