Smart potato cultivation system

chester

Member
Location
Somerset
Would you like to :
Save fuel.

Reduce the number of cultivation passes.

Reduce your reliance on weather.

Make harvesting easier.

Increase planting rate.

Make management easier.

We are achieving this on our own fields and I would like share it but would like to get some monetary reward from doing so. My proposal would be to set up a subscription service with advice and support given to help members achieve this. I would be grateful of your thoughts.
 

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Spud

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
YO62
What you're offering is essentially consultancy, so I guess to share your wisdom you need to set yourself up as such?
Our practices (as I'm sure is the case for others too) have changed a lot in the last 15 or so years.
We were at one time bedtilling 150% of our potato area, now only 30%
One destoner not two
One harvester
Less trailers but more output
Nematicides down 70% too
Better quality potatoes
There is always a better way

So what are you doing that warrants charging for instead of forum chat? Pic looks like ridgers on a power harrow?
 
What you're offering is essentially consultancy, so I guess to share your wisdom you need to set yourself up as such?
Our practices (as I'm sure is the case for others too) have changed a lot in the last 15 or so years.
We were at one time bedtilling 150% of our potato area, now only 30%
One destoner not two
One harvester
Less trailers but more output
Nematicides down 70% too
Better quality potatoes
There is always a better way

So what are you doing that warrants charging for instead of forum chat? Pic looks like ridgers on a power harrow?
That's what I thought. Know people that just deep cultivate then till and ridge at the same time. We plough, grub, ridge, destone, maybe bed till an average of 25%. I think we could get away with ploughing just before ridging then ridging straight after on a lot of ground, might consider going back to single ridgers with loosening tines in between maybe . Still got to spray off my cover crops so hopefully the snow pisses off soon, the rye is starting to get a bit thick!
 

Flat 10

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Fen Edge
What you're offering is essentially consultancy, so I guess to share your wisdom you need to set yourself up as such?
Our practices (as I'm sure is the case for others too) have changed a lot in the last 15 or so years.
We were at one time bedtilling 150% of our potato area, now only 30%
One destoner not two
One harvester
Less trailers but more output
Nematicides down 70% too
Better quality potatoes
There is always a better way

So what are you doing that warrants charging for instead of forum chat? Pic looks like ridgers on a power harrow?
Going straight into maize stubble by the looks of it so likely some front loosening tines? I admire the OP for being upfront but suspect it will be difficult to monetise.
 

chester

Member
Location
Somerset
Hopefully I have pasted two links to videos showing the system working straight into unworked stubble on some well bodied ground. Ground was hard and dry on top but using this system meant we conserved what moisture was there and we didn’t produce any large clods which would have baked out. Have a look at the videos and let me know what you think please.
 

Goffer

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Yorkshire
Hopefully I have pasted two links to videos showing the system working straight into unworked stubble on some well bodied ground. Ground was hard and dry on top but using this system meant we conserved what moisture was there and we didn’t produce any large clods which would have baked out. Have a look at the videos and let me know what you think please.
Err.... no different to alot around , "adaptive till" we call it
 

Daniel

Member
Hopefully I have pasted two links to videos showing the system working straight into unworked stubble on some well bodied ground. Ground was hard and dry on top but using this system meant we conserved what moisture was there and we didn’t produce any large clods which would have baked out. Have a look at the videos and let me know what you think please.
You’re using off the shelf cultivation machinery to create a ridge for planting potatoes into. What is it you’re selling?
 

Spud

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
YO62
Hopefully I have pasted two links to videos showing the system working straight into unworked stubble on some well bodied ground. Ground was hard and dry on top but using this system meant we conserved what moisture was there and we didn’t produce any large clods which would have baked out. Have a look at the videos and let me know what you think please.
Well bodied ground? 🤣🤦🤐
 

Spud

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
YO62
Hopefully I have pasted two links to videos showing the system working straight into unworked stubble on some well bodied ground. Ground was hard and dry on top but using this system meant we conserved what moisture was there and we didn’t produce any large clods which would have baked out. Have a look at the videos and let me know what you think please.
My honest opinion? What do I think to that system? Not much!

You're operating there into light dry soil, milling the soil to dust. That alone will result in lower quality potatoes and more difficult harvesting. No sign of any front tines to aerate or pan bust. Nothing revolutionary, just off the shelf kit. Why a power harrow over a tiller? It'll be a lot more expensive in wearing metal.
Our biggest gains here have been from reducing intensive cultivation as much as possible, as I outined further up the thread.
 
Last edited:

chester

Member
Location
Somerset
My honest opinion? What do I think to that system? Not much!

You're operating there into light dry soil, milling the soil to dust. That alone will result in lower quality potatoes and more difficult harvesting. No sign of any front tines to aerate or pan bust. Nothing revolutionary, just off the shelf kit. Why a power harrow over a tiller? It'll be a lot more expensive in wearing metal.
Our biggest gains here have been from reducing intensive cultivation as much as possible, as I outined further up the thread.
Thanks for your reply. I know the soil looks light but there is enough clay in it to produce a packing sample that we will store to June. If you look closely at the power Harrow tines in the second video you will see they are not going that fast. We tested the field with a penetrometer and found no compaction or pan so felt there was no need for any deeper loosening. If there was a need we could either fit loosening tines in front of the p/h or subsoil as a separate operation. Why a p/h over a bedtiller? If you dig away the loose soil and compare the pan left by the two machines the p/h one seems less smeared. Yes you right about the high rate of wear on the p/h tines, but would bedtiller blades not wear at a similar rate if they were working into unworked stubble? We have had a set of p/h tines coated with diamond dust and they seem to be lasting, but have not done a big enough area yet to tell. The cost of the high wear rate is much less than two or three passes with some sort of tines cultivator. Why do people seem not to use bedtillers straight into stubble as I believe some can be? Leaving the stubble untouched until just before you want to separate it means it is very weather safe either from not drying out too much or from be coming a mush if it rains. The system is incredible simple and easy to manage as you can just send the two machines off together to get the field ready for planting.
 

Spud

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
YO62
Thanks for your reply. I know the soil looks light but there is enough clay in it to produce a packing sample that we will store to June. If you look closely at the power Harrow tines in the second video you will see they are not going that fast. We tested the field with a penetrometer and found no compaction or pan so felt there was no need for any deeper loosening. If there was a need we could either fit loosening tines in front of the p/h or subsoil as a separate operation. Why a p/h over a bedtiller? If you dig away the loose soil and compare the pan left by the two machines the p/h one seems less smeared. Yes you right about the high rate of wear on the p/h tines, but would bedtiller blades not wear at a similar rate if they were working into unworked stubble? We have had a set of p/h tines coated with diamond dust and they seem to be lasting, but have not done a big enough area yet to tell. The cost of the high wear rate is much less than two or three passes with some sort of tines cultivator. Why do people seem not to use bedtillers straight into stubble as I believe some can be? Leaving the stubble untouched until just before you want to separate it means it is very weather safe either from not drying out too much or from be coming a mush if it rains. The system is incredible simple and easy to manage as you can just send the two machines off together to get the field ready for planting.
Good luck. If you're able to power harrow straight in it's kind land indeed.
As power harrow blades wear, they get shorter, which reduces clearance for soil to pass through, as the trough is essentially lower to the ground to maintain working depth.
For me your system is a long way from weather proof - as soon as it rains you're stopped, I couldn't entertain bare stubble over winter either, need a cc on it, which would vastly reduce the need for cultivation anyway.
ime you have to do serious acres with a cultivator to spend as much on wearing metal as a bedtiller or power harrow.
I don't like any form of rotary cultivation pre potatoes if I can help it, it's far too easy to create a pan, but sometimes it's necessary I'll admit.
Ten years ago we used to ridge up with a tiller. Far too expensive and soil destructive to tolerate now.
 

Spud

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
YO62
Thanks for your reply. I know the soil looks light but there is enough clay in it to produce a packing sample that we will store to June. If you look closely at the power Harrow tines in the second video you will see they are not going that fast. We tested the field with a penetrometer and found no compaction or pan so felt there was no need for any deeper loosening. If there was a need we could either fit loosening tines in front of the p/h or subsoil as a separate operation. Why a p/h over a bedtiller? If you dig away the loose soil and compare the pan left by the two machines the p/h one seems less smeared. Yes you right about the high rate of wear on the p/h tines, but would bedtiller blades not wear at a similar rate if they were working into unworked stubble? We have had a set of p/h tines coated with diamond dust and they seem to be lasting, but have not done a big enough area yet to tell. The cost of the high wear rate is much less than two or three passes with some sort of tines cultivator. Why do people seem not to use bedtillers straight into stubble as I believe some can be? Leaving the stubble untouched until just before you want to separate it means it is very weather safe either from not drying out too much or from be coming a mush if it rains. The system is incredible simple and easy to manage as you can just send the two machines off together to get the field ready for planting.
Good luck. If you're able to power harrow straight in it's kind land indeed.
As power harrow blades wear, they get shorter, which reduces clearance for soil to pass through, as the trough is essentially lower to the ground to maintain working depth.
For me your system is a long way from weather proof - as soon as it rains you're stopped, I couldn't entertain bare stubble over winter either, need a cc on it, which would vastly reduce the need for cultivation anyway.
ime you have to do serious acres with a cultivator to spend as much on wearing metal as a bedtiller or power harrow.
I don't like any form of rotary cultivation pre potatoes if I can help it, it's far too easy to create a pan, but sometimes it's necessary I'll admit.
Ten years ago we used to ridge up with a tiller. Far too expensive and soil destructive to tolerate now.
 

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