How us big boys do it......

[Saturna]

I thought that a few of you on here might be interested in seeing how a commercial crop of potatoes is produced from start to finish. We are a relatively small commercial grower producing potatoes for Walkers and McCains on approx 100 acres per year, the varieties being Saturna and Pentland Dell.

I'll start right at the beginning, the first operation I do not have pictures of though

1) Contractor applies liquid fertiliser onto bare ground for us

2) We (or a contractor depending on workload) then spreads 7000kg per hectare of poultry manure on the fields



4) Fields are then cultivated to incorperate the manure and deep cultivated to 16 inches deep with a sub-soiler



5) Fields are then ridged up into deep "beds" ready for the next operation, this is where the skill comes in as unlike some growers we do not yet have eye in the sky guidance

[Saturna]

6) The next step is to use a stone and clod seperator to remove all stones and clods above a certain size from the beds to meet the quality of potatoes that the market demands, speeds are sometimes down to 1kph or under



7) Potatoes are then planted, sometimes, as in the case in the picture pesticide granules have to be applied as well for soil borne diseases





8) During the growing season all fields are irrigated (watered) on a regular basis to be sure of a good yield. Spraying also takes place on a regular basis to control weeds early on and blight throughout the season

[Saturna]

9) During August and September samples are dug for testing to determine when we spray the tops off ready for harvesting

10) Harvesting usually starts for us towards the end of September. We lift two rows at a time with a topper on the front of my tractor and the harvester on the back







This box of tricks controls the harvester



11) Potatoes are run over this grader for damaged potatoes and foreign objects to be manually removed before loading straight onto lorries or into a bulk store where they stay until January










This is the size of Pentland Dell that we like to achieve, get paid a size bonus for them if a certain percentage are like this




And harvesting goes from one extreme to the other at that time of year, one day its so dusty you can't see....





and the next you're calling someone for a tow chain when a trailer sinks beside the harvester (the harvester has power driven wheels so rarely gets stuck)

[Lesley Jay]

That's really interesting! My OH probably eats yours spuds every night! ( He's a Walkers man. ) We're located in the market garden area of Cheshire with farms around us but why do they call the local spuds 'Cheshire' new potatoes??

[DavidT]

Saturna, are those Pentland Dell really big, or do you have small hands.

[Saturna]

Well put it this way, people never ask if I'd like a handfull of anything as my hands are like shovels

[DavidT]

You wont get many of those spuds in a dozen then.

[Majd]

@Saturna: Your last picture in your first post looks amazing. Would you mind if I would set it as my wallpaper?
BTW those potatoes (they are potatoes, right?) look very big. Congratz.

[Saturna]

Feel free to use my picture if you so wish

Yes they are potatoes, the bigger the better for that variety as far as McCains are concerned.

We've actually just bought and collected a new harvester for this year, when I say new its a 2005 machine, we can't justify the price of a brand new one



This one has even more buttons for me to press as well

[ChoccyCarole]

WOW ........Really enjoyed this fab thread
and extra great with so many brill photos
~Thank you Saturna xx

[jazzmini59]

What a great post !! If only more farmers found a way to open up like this and show what goes on.......I'll never look a chip in the eye in the same way ever again.

[DavidT]

Saturna, which is the self destruct button?

[MrKennethPorter]

great looking rig. I help a mate out sometimes

he just got the new John Deere 7530.

Was out with him spreading fertilizer last week. The sat nav and controls made it feel like a space ship inside. Not an inch of the field was missed with the satnav system. Air con, big stereo, plush suspension. wow

I was very impressed to say the least.

[Saturna]

Originally Posted by jazzmini59

What a great post !! If only more farmers found a way to open up like this and show what goes on.......I'll never look a chip in the eye in the same way ever again.

Thanks, sadly this is where most farmers have struggled in the past, public relations and public awareness in what exactly is involved in food production needs to be improved.

Just as a point of interest, last year our Pentland Dell were sold for around £120 per ton to McCains, at current supermarket prices their French Fries work out to £1670 per ton and Home Fries are £1000 per ton so you can see how little of that the grower actually gets.


This is a video I took in 2008 while harvesting potatoes, this was in ideal harvesting conditions so you can see the speed we travel at

YouTube - Potato Harvest 2008 - N Norfolk

[Saturna]

Thought I'd just update this with a video from this year of the new to us harvester at work, one of the rarer dry periods during this potato harvest seasons as well

[Digindeep]

Yeah! And!............................

[airconednightmare]

I saw a lot of commercially grown tatties rot in their fields this year, it was really wet through oct and nov then the snow came...such a waste

i'm assuming the harvest machine doesn't work when the crop is water logged/frozen?

oh and how do the 'big boys' view people who go collect the tatties that the machine misses? free food tastes better than any other kind

[Saturna]

We were lucky as we got ours harvested before it turned too wet, was just starting to get wet underfoot as we finished with trailers and the harvester sinking, the latter is not a problem though as it pushes itself along.

The machine will work in slightly waterlogged conditions and probably in frosty ones but potatoes bruise very easily in cold conditions so damage levels would be high.

Its not unusual to us carrying sacks on tractors to bag the ones up what get left behind for our own use, waste not want not

These few pictures show how wet the ground was at times, the ruts left by the trailers were deep enough to lose a Spaniel in

[Matt_B]

Quality

Always wondered if you guys was satalite guided?!

Nice post, and I hope us Brits purchase your produce

Matt

[Saturna]

Hi Matt

Many growers are satelite guided but we still do it by eye and good old fashioned skill, the initial outlay on the required kit is prohibitive on the area we grow. We would be looking at £10000-£14000 in order to gain the level of accuracy that we would require.

If you eat Walkers or McCains products then there is a chance that you will have eaten potatoes grown on our farm