Successful spuds

Professional potato growing has never been analysed as much as it is today in order to produce the right varieties for the right markets and understanding soil is paramount. Driving marketable yield to achieve greater production from the same acreage is one of the key planks in Wholecrop Marketing's strategy to provide greater sustainability for their growers.
James Hopwood, head of agriculture at Whole Crop Marketing at Kirkburn near Driffield with different varieties of potatoes.James Hopwood, head of agriculture at Whole Crop Marketing at Kirkburn near Driffield with different varieties of potatoes.
James Hopwood, head of agriculture at Whole Crop Marketing at Kirkburn near Driffield with different varieties of potatoes.

Last week the potato marketing company based at Kirkburn near Driffield held its annual field trials day near Market Weighton where 109 varieties were on show across the 17-acre site. But it was Innovation Alley that also attracted massive attention and James Hopwood, head of agriculture, was on hand to assist growers in developments that will take the crop forward.

“Innovation Alley is all about increasing marginal gain for our growers. Varieties are very important and the work there will always see new strains developed but we want to peel back the layers over how producers are growing potatoes and offer new technologies that will bring about greater results in future.

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“Soil health is massively important. Every potato grower needs to be aware of and understand what is in the soil and that means undertaking an in-depth analysis of the micro and macro nutrients. The focus is on the key attributes in terms of nutritional development of the crop through phosphate, nitrogen, magnesium, potassium and sulphur but I’m also as interested with the micro nutrients such as zinc, boron and copper.

“The target is for the crop to have a good canopy by June 21, the longest day, as this is very much a sunshine crop. The seed potato is the ignition switch and we need to be able to give the crop food in terms of nutrients so that it can grow healthily.

“Targetting nutrition without throwing fertilisers about in order to produce the right kind of output is vital. One of the key innovations has been in the use of microbes. We’ve adapted kit brought in from a potato machinery company to spray microbes on to the soil the split second before the potato is dropped into the furrow. It’s all done in one pass too. The microbes are capsulated in solution and hatch out. What this means is that when the plant starts to grow and exude its hormones the microbes are already there, that way the plant immediately starts to process the nutrients around it and stands a far better chance of creating a better crop.”

Upfront costs on a potato crop can reach £2,000 to £2,500 per acre before a producer sees any return and accuracy over planting plus calculation of field yield is another key area that Wholecrop are keen to show producers. The company has invested in a drone and aerial sensing, James has his Civil Aviation Authority licence along with all other relevant qualifications and explains how it can help through a system that works on an NDVI (Normalised Difference Vegetation Index).

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“It works on reflectance from the crop and provides mapping by calculation of light spectrums. If the map comes back as totally green then we know the crop is good and working well. Where it differs we ask questions as to why and find out whether it is something that can be put right.”

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