Potato crop 2021

Sonoftheheir

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
West Suffolk
Hello everyone, i was wondering if someone can tell me if my plants has Potato virus Y or mosaic virus?
What about third photo, what are those black dots behind leaves? can it be mana or some kind of fungi?

Not sure? Could be a number of things? Where are you from? Is that grass growing underneath them?
 

Sonoftheheir

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
West Suffolk
First blight + manganese spray today, Markie planted 16th April.
AFA5C820-07BC-4E9F-840C-50B9F6950D7F.jpeg
 

marshfarmer

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Norfolk
Did anyone else notice potato weekly would cease publication shortly? I found that handy for a price reference. My few sagitta have emerged much better this year than my first attempt last year. Later seed delivery and warmer soil. I feel the crop is 2 weeks behind normal tho. I have some manitou this year. Very slow emerging
 
Did anyone else notice potato weekly would cease publication shortly? I found that handy for a price reference. My few sagitta have emerged much better this year than my first attempt last year. Later seed delivery and warmer soil. I feel the crop is 2 weeks behind normal tho. I have some manitou this year. Very slow emerging
Yes my Sagitta the same. Every egg a bird! Unfortunately I think the bag job is totally knackered without a published guide price
 

Austin7

Member
Yes my Sagitta the same. Every egg a bird! Unfortunately I think the bag job is totally knackered without a published guide price

Potato Weekly has been manipulated to keep prices down for years. No way should anyone have regarded it as a "published guide price" Our delivered London price is £400 ton reds and £230 for whites. We are by means top of the market. It is easy to check just go to the market and visit the stands, something AHDB stopped doing six years ago.
 

Hindsight

Member
Location
Lincolnshire
Yes my Sagitta the same. Every egg a bird! Unfortunately I think the bag job is totally knackered without a published guide price

Why do you say that? This is a genuine question.

Let me ask you - if the merchants representative published a guide price of say £100 tonne for this Autumn would you blindly accept that for your crop even though you know the cost of production is nearer £200? Presume so?!

I say the last thing the bag market needs is an 'official guide price' merchants and the trade can hide behind, quote and dominate. It just means the bag trade heads off into the disaster world which is the packing job where so much crop is now on contract that the seven or so main packers (proxy for there respective supermarket retailer) can stand out from the free buy market and thus destroy any potential of free buy premium - so barring complete crop failure the contract price is the maximum. And because the free buy price is disastrous this has had the effect of ensuring an even greater tonnage is now contracted. And why - well the supermarket retailers sell at a fixed price all year - the last thing they want is volatility in raw material price.

The bag trade thank goodness is still a 'true' market with umpteen buyers (chip shops) no larger financially than the farmer supplier. So there is an element of free market competition. And the end user is less price sensitive as the potato is considerably smaller percentage of the end product price.

In so far as a market report mechanism - now AHDB is gone something else will appear - probably web based forum type share information.

My views so probably wrong.
 

marshfarmer

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Norfolk
In so far as a market report mechanism - now AHDB is gone something else will appear - probably web based forum type share information.

My views so probably wrong.
Yes this forum is a great resource but there's no screening of who posts on a price thread. Why would it be so difficult for us all to stick together and never drop below £5/ bag. But it is
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 78 42.9%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 63 34.6%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.5%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 5 2.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,286
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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