BOISE - Potato farmers in Idaho and elsewhere in the United States have cut acreage by nearly 10 percent this year and are instead planting more corn, wheat and barley to take advantage of escalating grain prices and to avoid a market-crunching spud glut.

Potatoes for fall harvest were planted on less than 1 million acres, down 80,000 acres from 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In Idaho, which accounts for a third of all U.S. potatoes, acreage planted in brown-skinned Russet Burbanks and other varieties fell from 350,000 to 300,000, the lowest since Jimmy Carter was president.

United Potato Growers of America is a three-year-old agricultural cooperative that represents 60 percent of the nation's fresh potato growers.

Its efforts to reduce price-deflating surpluses that plagued the U.S. industry through 2004 are now getting a boost from grains that have been trading on commodity markets at or near historically high prices.