Posted: 01.13.2010

Wisconsin farmers planted 63,500 acres of fall potatoes in 2009. Area harvested was 63,000 acres, up from the 62,000 acres har-vested in 2008. Potatoes yielded a record 460 hundredweight (cwt.) per acre, compared to 415 a year earlier. Wisconsin’s production was 29.0 million cwt., ranking them third in fall potato production behind Idaho and Washington.

Nationally, potato growers harvested 919,600 acres of fall potatoes in 2009, down slightly from last year. The fall potato yield for the U.S. was a record 428 cwt. per acre. Total fall potato production was 393.5 million cwt. Total production from all four season of potatoes (winter, spring, summer, fall) was 431.4 million cwt., up 4 percent from 2008.

Dry beans planted in Wisconsin during 2009 totaled 6,400 acres, a decrease of 100 acres from 2008. The number of acres harvested remained the same at 6,400 acres. State dry bean production in 2009 totaled 127,000 cwt. with a yield of 1,980 pounds per acre. Wisconsin produces mostly dark red kidney beans and placed second in the Nation for the production of those beans.

Wisconsin farmers harvested 3,400 acres of peppermint and 500 acres of spearmint in 2009. Peppermint yielded 54 pounds per acre and spearmint yielded 56 pounds per acre compared to 48 pounds per acre and 30 pounds per acre respectively in 2008. Peppermint production, at 184,000 pounds, was up 3 percent from the previous year, while spearmint production, at 28,000 pounds, was down 7 percent.

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