AHDB’s Strategic Potato (SPot) Farm based in Perthshire in Scotland has revealed the three key areas it will focus on in 2017; nutrition, cultivation, and seed.
Like the other Spot Farms in Staffordshire and West Suffolk, Spot Farm Scotland is based on a three-year programme of field scale trials and demonstrations. Content will be tailored to specific areas that affect the Scottish industry and will provide growers with an insight into how the latest new systems and practice stemming from AHDB-funded research can be adopted on their farms.
The 2017 plan was developed following a launch event in July at the host farm, Bruce Farms in Perthshire, during which growers were asked which areas they would like to see covered. For farm manager, Kerr Howatson, the key to making the project a success is keeping it simple.
He says: “Growers have highlighted nutrition, cultivation and seed, which gives us three really important topics to focus on, and we intend to look at these in depth.
“What we want to do is demonstrate good crop husbandry and try to identify the optimum conditions for growing seed and ware potatoes.
“It is not a one size fits all approach, but the project will highlight practical measures growers can use on their own farms.”
Demonstrating techniques
Michael Inglis, technical manager at Albert Bartlett, welcomes the opportunity to demonstrate new techniques through the Spot Farm programme.
He says: “Growers need to respond to the ever challenging retail requirements of quality, yield and efficiency.
“There has never been a more trying environment for potato growers in the UK; this requires farm-based R&D to provide guidance on tackling these difficult issues.”
Jim Aitken, senior agronomist at Branston Ltd, will be involved in the nutrition demonstrations and he sees merit in looking at two areas; matching nitrogen inputs of a crop to customer requirements, and adjusting N levels to allow for organic manure applications.
“We need to look at nitrogen inputs, because getting those levels right will help us grow the type of products customers are looking for,” says Jim.
“Take for example Maris Piper for the chipping trade and Maris Piper for pre-packing. While the chipping market needs a high proportion of big tubers with a high dry matter, pre-pack crops need to be harvested earlier to get the best skin finish and too many growers are delaying bulking and skin-set by using too much nitrogen.”
Jim also believes growers need to fully embrace the benefits of organic fertiliser applications.
“There is a reluctance to accept, in many cases, that inorganic fertiliser applications can be substantially reduced when farmyard manure and other bulk organic fertilisers are applied,” he explains.
“It would be reassuring if we could demonstrate on the SPot farm how bold you can be when cutting back bagged fertiliser in the presence of applied organic material.”
Cultivation is another area where fairly simple changes can make a significant difference to the crop yield.
'Reducing cultivations'
Spot Farm Scotland has already carried out some initial trials, the results of which will be released by December, and they will continue to investigate the role of reducing cultivations to help lower costs while increasing productivity.
Claire Hodge, AHDB Potatoes knowledge exchange manager, explains: “We are examining areas such as removing secondary cultivation, reducing working depths and improving soil structure to see what we can change without compromising the friable, free-draining and non-compacted seed-beds that potatoes need.”
Of course without high quality seed stock the entire potato industry would falter, which is why maintaining a reliable supply will be the third component of the 2017 programme.
Alistair Melrose, production manager at seed and ware merchants Wm Fraser, who chairs the AHDB Potatoes' Seed and Export Committee, says: “Unfortunately there are several factors that can affect that reliability.
“Spot Farm provides an opportunity for all sectors of the industry to work together and examine some of these factors, such as storage, handling, and transportation.”
Kerr isn’t daunted by the work ahead for Spot Farm Scotland. “I’m looking forward to it, and I think other growers are too.
“We have had a lot of interest in the project, people are talking about it, and I’m sure we will give them plenty more to talk about over the next three years.”
