Smart potato cultivation system

[chester]

Habit and not wanting to get it wrong

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head and I was guilty of succumbing to both. The fear of getting it wrong can be huge and no body wants to be the one responsible for sending a load of clod or stones back to the grader. I think the fact I’m a director, do the destoning and drive the harvester means I’m in a good position to monitor and be responsible for the whole operation. As Warksfarmer has said the first lightbulb moment was ditching the plough, by working the ground from the top down we avoided producing large clods and harvesting was notably easier. The second was getting rtk which gave rise to me questioning the need to work the whole field to 300mm which we had been. With the rtk it allowed us to just work the wheelings to 300mm using the Karat with all but four tines removed. The remainder of the field was worked much shallower, I think about 200mm by memory. This gave us the confidence to realise only the wheelings where the bedformer would go needed to be worked deeply. So we purchased a Simba St bar with two tines on to go between the tractor and bed former, this worked really well on the light ground and is the system we still use. It worked on the heavier ground but we were still doing multiple passes with the karat and rolls. In the worst fields we were still using a bedtiller to knock the larger clods down to size. It was in these circumstances we turned to the power Harrow using a Lemken Zirkon that we purchased to see if it was the tool for the job. This gave us the confidence to purchase a newer Kuhn one with rear linkage that meant we could put the bedformer behind. Once we got to the point of preparing the ground in one pass it meant we could easily experiment with the depth. We kept progressively reducing the depth and we had go too shallow , ie 100mm , to find the sweet spot of 125mm. I don’t think any of us believed this was deep enough but in field after field it has proved to be enough. It does require careful monitoring so each machine is equipped with a steal ruler to make the task easier and accurate. The proof is in the digging and this year we had the easiest harvest ever. The power Harrow tines behind the tractor wheels have extensions welded on to work the ground a bit deeper where the bedformer will follow.

 

[chester]

Cos that’s the way they’ve allllllllllllways done it!

Given that cost of fuel and machinery has sky rocketed and the poor returns in the industry can we continue this form of remaining in our comfort zone? I know from experience that change can be very uncomfortable but innovation has never been easy and you have to crack a few eggs to make an omelette.

 

[chester]

Think of working ground like chiselling bits off a block of wood. To produce small lumps of wood you would use a narrow chisel and start a few mm down from the top. You would progressively work your way down the block chiselling small pieces off, all the time you would hold the block firmly in the vice. So by using narrow power Harrow tines working to a shallow depth into firm, relatively solid ground, we are only producing small lumps of dirt. This is why in the videos it appears that the soil is light and easy working, we are not producing any large lumps to start with. If we were to go in with a wide chisel near the bottom of our block of wood we would obviously produce a large lump. This large lump would then not be held so would require a lot of speed and energy to break it into smaller lumps. This is the scenario we were producing when we ploughed or subsoiled as the first pass of our seedbed preparation and would then require bed tilling.
We place more emphasis on the destoner doing the work as it only has to break the clods down that won’t pass through the web, unlike a bedtiller which has to work the whole bed profile, fine and clods inclusively, and that requires a lot of power. To this end we use a Cs-150xl which has a extended web area to give us increased crumbling capacity.

 

[alomy75]

Given that cost of fuel and machinery has sky rocketed and the poor returns in the industry can we continue this form of remaining in our comfort zone? I know from experience that change can be very uncomfortable but innovation has never been easy and you have to crack a few eggs to make an omelette.

Completely agree. Unfortunately/fortunately thesedays there are a lot of farms who aren’t just ‘farms’ (diversification, second jobs etc) or the farm is run as an accounting tool (which is great; I’d love to be in that position) but in any case; the farm isn’t necessarily run to be as efficient/sustainable as possible.

 

[warksfarmer]

I bet that was nearer 30yrs ago than 20! Old Reekie 200?

Yep 31 yrs thinking about it and yes the reekie. Did a good job to be honest although forming the ridge was a bit of a fiddle from memory.

 

[Spud]

Yep 31 yrs thinking about it and yes the reekie. Did a good job to be honest although forming the ridge was a bit of a fiddle from memory.

Contractor planting ours back then had one. Soon got parked up & dragged the old faun out

 

[Secret Agronomist]

Contractor planting ours back then had one. Soon got parked up & dragged the old faun out

Someone in East Lothian had made a self propelled one, that would be 35 years ago!

 

[chester]

So would it be fair to say the most popular system is to use a Sumo trio type cultivator once or twice at approximately 10 inches deep and then bedform. Using a bedtiller if and when conditions dictate?
I would like to hear of any variations from the above. I have a rather sad fascination when it comes to potato cultivations, I think it has a lot do with the beautiful earthy smell they produce and also the pleasing aesthetic finish when the jobs done well.

 

[Spud]

So would it be fair to say the most popular system is to use a Sumo trio type cultivator once or twice at approximately 10 inches deep and then bedform. Using a bedtiller if and when conditions dictate?
I would like to hear of any variations from the above. I have a rather sad fascination when it comes to potato cultivations, I think it has a lot do with the beautiful earthy smell they produce and also the pleasing aesthetic finish when the jobs done well.

Not really, majority round here still plough, drag, ridge, till, destone, plant.
We tend to drag with a Simba TL to mix all the om of fym and cover crops, plough, drag, ridge, destone, plant.
The plough is often condemned, but is very effective at creating a drier more friable plantable bed at a reduced depth

 

[legin]

Have seen a local potato grower subsoil once/twice and plant straight in with a 4 row Baselier planter.

 

[Spud]

Have seen a local potato grower subsoil once/twice and plant straight in with a 4 row Baselier planter.

Very doable on kind stone free land

 

[chester]

We were, ploughing, letting it dry, then roll, bedform, but with the weather deteriorating we have switched to the the combination And it’s producing more consistent beds and means we have very little ground cultivated and exposed if it rains. As we are short of labour it’s helping to make life simpler and easier.

 

[Lowland1]

Discordan, Then compost spread on top then dragged with pigtail cultivator to mix compost in. Bedformed with Jones machine then plant. The soil is not particularly light but not going deep in one go gives a very good seed bed.

 

[chester]

This was taken a couple of days ago as we were doing a cultivation trial with Mark Stalham to test the one pass shallow approach against the standard, in this case it was flat lift, bedformer, bed till, destone.Measurements have been taken on time and fuel used for the two systems and the plots will be taken to yield and quality and the amount of dirt tare. As you can see from the photos it certainly was not boy’s ground. Ex grass, mucked and damp.

 

[Lowland1]

Taurus 38 days after planting