Potato farmers are currently facing a number of issues

One of the issues facing a potato farm is rising input expenses. Nick Sheppard, farm manager of Upton Suffolk Farms in Bury St Edmunds, conducted the first Agri-TechE farm walk of 2022 to demonstrate agri-tech in action and address the need for innovation in a time of crisis.

"Rising expenses are a problem, particularly with the Ukraine scenario," Nick explains. Nitrogen cost me less than £200 two years ago and over £300 last year. It's now £650 if you can find it at all. "I heard of a boat carrying DAP fertilizer from Russia that was turned away at the port.

" Another major concern is agri-inflation, which the AF Group predicts will reach 22%."

"We grow 123ha of potatoes, which is the farm's financial backbone, and they're entirely for consumption rather than processing." Planting will take place in early- to mid-March, with harvesting taking place from late July to September. We put some in short-term storage to lengthen the season, but the remainder is going directly to the shelves of large stores."

Growing potatoes is something I like doing.

"I've spent most of my working life on farms — I've been at Upton Suffolk Farms for three and a half years and worked as a potato agronomic before that." I adore farming potatoes; it is, without a question, my favorite crop.

"To get a respectable return on salad potatoes, we need to sell a million or more tubers per hectare, but the aim isn't just production — we're seeking a specific size and quality." A little potato (45mm diameter or smaller) is worth roughly £300 per tonne, but bigger potatoes might be for as little as £50 per tonne depending on the market and contract.

"We're out digging 2m plots twice a week in late June/early July, taking the potatoes back, making size splits, and measuring them since the difference in returns is so significant." It's a game of deduction.

"You may leave it two days after harvesting and lose a lot of value." On the other hand, we can't collect tubers smaller than 25mm since they'll get caught in the machines. If there are many tubers under 25mm, I may let additional potatoes develop above the 45mm band in order to increase the number of little potatoes over the 25mm band. When to stop the potatoes from developing is always a difficult decision."

A potato grower faces several problems.

"We've kept the seed potatoes in cold storage until now, and if the weather cooperates, I'd want to have them planted by early March." They've been kept at 3-4 degrees until just before Christmas when I turn on the ethylene generator to encourage stem growth and prevent chitting.

"What we do is fully determined by market forces." Some supermarkets require more audits than others, and different auditing procedures exist. Also, Red Tractor and LEAF are fantastic ideas, but they both come with a lot of red tape.

"Some of our potatoes also make their way to wholesale markets in London, where chefs are picky and like Maris Peer." To be fair, it's a tasty potato, but new potato types are on the way that can produce 1.5 million tubers per acre while also having better agronomic characteristics — it's the pinnacle of breeding technique. But Maris Piper and Maris Peer are what the customers demand, therefore that's what we cultivate."

The farm also grows onions in sets for supermarket sales, as well as sugar beet for British Sugar's Silver Spoon brand.

The advantages of using an anaerobic digester are numerous.

On-site, there is an anaerobic digester that supplies gas to the national grid and is managed by a third company. As a feedstock for the plant, the farm grows maize and energy rye, which provides liquid and solid digestate as products, which are utilized as fertilizer on the farm.

The farm purchased a Rotormax, a machine from Holland, to disperse the digestate. The spreader digs two-inch furrows in the soil and injects the digestate straight into the soil, providing fertilizer for the following crop. This reduces volatilization by limiting the digestate's exposure to the air.

"We have 20,000 cubic meters of digestate on hand," Nick explains. "That will provide the majority of the nourishment our crops require."

The facility, which was once operated by Strut & Parker, is now controlled by Material Change, a professional AD operator who, as Nick points out, "is producing significantly more gas and digestate, which is wonderful."

CO2, the second by-product, is sold to the beverages sector and goes to Bury St Edmunds' Greene King Brewery.

Soil conservation strategies

The soil, which varies in quality and depth across the land, is a huge concern for Nick.

"The soil type on our land varies greatly. Some areas have blowing sand, which implies that if March and April are dry, any little sugar beet plant might be wiped off by the wind. To counteract the blow, we've begun growing barley between the fields of sugar beet. The barley is up just ahead of the beets, and we rinse it off in May when the crop cover is sufficient.

"We have weed beet problems, so we're trying out a new technique that sprays the weed beet out." We were among the first in our farmer group to use Conviso Beet last year, and it performed admirably.

"Previously, the field produced 26 t/ha of sugar, which is - well, don't bother." The Conviso Beet produced 85 tonnes per hectare this year. The costs went up by £100 per hectare, yet this was one of our highest-yielding fields."

Nutrient monitoring using soil analysis

"The use of mineral fertilizers is drastically decreasing. Now, depending on the soil and digestate studies, I'm customizing it for each field.

"I'm collaborating with an outside specialist to enhance soil management." Micronutrients are fully available around pH 6.5-7, but when the pH rises above 7, the calcium in the soil begins to lock up more and more of the nutrients. Because all of our soils have a high pH – two fields have a pH of 7, while the others have a pH of 8-9 – we have a lot of phosphate, manganese, and magnesium lock-up issues.

"I do a three-year soil core analysis across the farm, but I do a year-by-year analysis on the potatoes and onions."

"We now provide tissue analysis as well." In the spring and summer, you remove the newest leaves from a growing plant, send them to a laboratory, and the findings are returned three days later. They can notify you if a crop is lacking in nutrients, and then you may use a foliar spray to restore the nutritional balance.

"Because this liquid digestate has a high nitrogen availability, I'd recommend using it in the spring rather than the fall, when there are few crops that may benefit from it."

"While I understand the drinking water and environmental aspects of the Farming Requirements in England, we need clearer guidance — some of the rules are practical, while others are quite academic."

Use of cover crops

According to Nick, the adoption of cover crops has been a significant development in farming techniques in recent years.

"We are mostly a spring-producing farm, so much of this area would have been left bare ten years ago." Between our income crops, we now farm 240 acres of green cover crops.

"There are a few explanations behind this." To begin with, it provides cover for wildlife; furthermore, it enhances soil organic matter and framework; and third, it provides an outlet for our biowaste, which we can use on the cover crop to improve soil quality and prevent the machines and equipment, and then it will be integrated into the soil straight or via sheep. It also makes the farm a lot more appealing to watch at in the winter, and tactics like these are helping to increase the number and variety of birds on the property.

"Over 50% of these cover crops are grazed by sheep belonging to a local farmer." He purchases sheep from the highlands and fattens them here. He pays me per sheep every day, which accommodates the cost of the seed, so we're in a good position financially.

"Another advantage of these cover crops is that they may be used as a control for potato cyst nematode (PCN)." This bug attacks the potato's roots, decreasing the plant's capacity to absorb nutrients and water, and lowering production. PCN, Rostochiensis, and Pallida are all present in considerable concentrations. Some potato types are resistant to one or both of these, but our capacity to diversify is restricted since, when cultivating table potatoes, the consumer only wants to buy the well-known kinds like Maris Peer and Piper. There are significantly superior potatoes to cultivate in terms of agronomy and eating quality, but most people choose the well-known kinds."

Irrigation equipment

"All of our irrigation decisions must be justified for Red Tractor." We've installed EnviroScan soil probes to aid with this, which go down a meter and read the water content of the soil at four different depths. Solar power is used to power the sensors, which communicate through 4G. With an app on my phone, I get a daily report so I can observe how the crops are utilizing water. However, it is only a recommendation; I still check with my spade!

"We all know that the better the soil structure is, the less water goes through it." On this area, accumulating organic stuff is challenging. We hope for some slight gains, but we want to keep the current levels.

"I've learned to irrigate far less than I did when these irrigation gadgets initially came out 25 years ago." Although technology has been beneficial, I continue to make my own decisions. It must be balanced with the weather prediction - one inch of rain tomorrow, and I may not irrigate – because plants want a combination of water and oxygen, so irrigation must be balanced.

Management of data

Potatoes"Another thing we do with technology is the sprayer - I can sit in my office and make my spray suggestions, then send them to the sprayer driver, who can then finish it and indicate how long it took and how much input was used, which is critical for food safety. From my office, I can see where they are on the farm, how quickly the tractor is traveling, and how much gasoline they've consumed. This is done using the tractor manufacturer's CASE Connect system.

"We use Gatekeeper to handle the data." It's complicated and time-consuming to set up; you must set up all of the fields, regions, and machines. Then it's simply like a paper record: 'On day y, I plowed field x and applied this quantity of input.'

"It's a large database; we have field recordings dating back over 10 years." The gatekeeper may also be used to employ GPS to direct tractors, set variable seeding and application rates, and track inputs. I'm quite sure I don't even utilize half of it."