United of Idaho Releases Complete Acreage Data

United Potato Growers of Idaho (United) has projected the statewide potato acreage at 300,266 acres for the 2008-2009 season, 12 percent lower than the acres counted by the Farm Service Agency (FSA) in 2007–2008, according to United.

The acreage results, announced at United’s All Grower Meeting, will provide growers with more accurate production data instead of relying on USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service surveys.

The acreage count represents United’s continued commitment to helping Idaho growers achieve long-term profitability,” said Jerry Wright, CEO and president of United. “For years, growers only had the incomplete information provided by the NASS survey, and we’ve managed to gather data that provides an actual acreage count versus a statistical estimate.”

Earlier this year, United contacted FSA and requested actual field maps for the entire state of Idaho. Using these maps, United created an acreage counting program. Starting on May 15, seven teams traveled throughout the state of Idaho physically counting potato acres by ground and air. All told, these teams reviewed more than 122,000 fields and counted more than 4.2 million acres.

United used a combination of GPS and mapping software to record the crops planted in each field. Fields were recorded as either potatoes or other; teams had to visually verify a field before recording its crop.

Following the count, United conducted an audit to verify the accuracy of its findings. Of the more than 122,000 fields, 793 fields were audited, representing 41,161 acres. The audit results indicated an error rate of less than 1 percent.

As part of this counting process, United established a data policy for the handling of all acreage data that will maintain the privacy of individual growers.

The privacy policy states that United will only provide and/or publish acreage data in aggregate by United districts, counties and by state. Individual fields are not identified by owner name, only by map location. Any maps published as part of a presentation or article, for example, will have all identifiable characteristics removed to prevent disclosure of specific field locations. ”