Too much of a good thing last year may see them dumping excess spuds to make way for a new crop in 2010, Idaho potato farmers have said.

KIFI-TV, Idaho Falls, reported on Wednesday that experts have said that farmers had such a successful season in 2009 the surplus is the greatest since 2001.

Faced with such a glut, many farmers choose to dump the surplus.

Gale Harding of the University of Idaho Ag Extension Office said, "We didn't plant that many more spuds, but because the growing conditions we had that much increased in yields it put us at a surplus. The only other alternatives besides feeding the cattle are to take them out and dump them some place and then bury them.

Harding further said, "It's really a hardship on our agriculture because these farmers are receiving pennies on the dollar for all the major investment they had growing their crops."

It has been reported that other agriculture experts agree.

John Thompson of the Idaho Farm Bureau said, "It's inevitable we will be dumping spuds on the ground this year." (With Inputs from Agencies)