The management of field scale vegetables?

[Pilatus]

Which is the most difficult part of manageing field scale vegetables, to meet the stringent supermarket requirements. How on earth do you for example get a field of Cauliflowers to be nearly all the same size??
Must be a lot of management skill required only gained from hands on experience.

 

[Devil's advocate]

Insect netting helps if you want caulies all the same size & maturity. That is not always best for the grower, we like a range of sizes & maturity.

Certainly all applications need to be spot on & the land of a consistent qualty.

I think the single hardest thing with caulie is getting the necessary fungicides & insecticides on without causeing any Harvest interval problems. Some of the modern bio products have shorter intervals which may help providing they work.

 

[Pilatus]

Insect netting helps if you want caulies all the same size & maturity. That is not always best for the grower, we like a range of sizes & maturity.

Certainly all applications need to be spot on & the land of a consistent qualty.

I think the single hardest thing with caulie is getting the necessary fungicides & insecticides on without causeing any Harvest interval problems. Some of the modern bio products have shorter intervals which may help providing they work.

Many thanks for your reply,to my unusual question.
I asked the question as when I see all that equal size veg in the supermarket I always think, “how do growers do that”. Is the size of potatoes manipulated to a degree by the amount of water they receive, so most potatoes have to irrigated to get the correct amount of water at certain times to influence tuber size.?
Makes growing cereals look easy in comparison.

 

[Driller]

Many thanks for your reply,to my unusual question.
I asked the question as when I see all that equal size veg in the supermarket I always think, “how do growers do that”. Is the size of potatoes manipulated to a degree by the amount of water they receive, so most potatoes have to irrigated to get the correct amount of water at certain times to influence tuber size.?
Makes growing cereals look easy in comparison.

We sometimes pass through a crop of cauli 5 or 6 times as they don’t all head at the same time, that’s how you get a consistent size in the supermarket. Variety,plant spacing and weather have something to do with it as well.

 

[Flat 10]

When I grew lettuces we had to fill in any planter misses not because of lost yield as such but more because it made the plants around them grow odd sizes

 

[Devil's advocate]

We sometimes pass through a crop of cauli 5 or 6 times as they don’t all head at the same time, that’s how you get a consistent size in the supermarket. Variety,plant spacing and weather have something to do with it as well.

Despite the extra work. Been small scale local only, we like it that way so that the batches over lap. Our worst losses have been perfectly level batches all maturing on the same day. Sometimes freak weather has caused October, November & December batches to mostly mature in the last week of October. Other years harvesting every day through out that period & even limping on with a few smaller ones till mid Feb.

You can't afford to grow veg if you can't be prepared to plough it in & smile.

 

[Princess Pooper]

Don't forget a lot of veg used to be left in the field or go for animal feed, with now some going as 'wonky veg' a well as some continuing to go for processing or down the wholesale market route to the few remaining independents and market traders.

A lot of veg north of Boston may be lost this summer looking at the state of the fields.

 

[Chrismc530]

Pigeons and crows are another thing, they really seem to love Caulis , evening with acres of cabbage growing round them

 

[Brisel]

Which is the most difficult part of manageing field scale vegetables, to meet the stringent supermarket requirements. How on earth do you for example get a field of Cauliflowers to be nearly all the same size??
Must be a lot of management skill required only gained from hands on experience.

I used to grow caulis, calibrese (broccoli) and cabbages. The calibrese & cabbages were trimmed down to the size wanted in the field. We worked on around 50% wastage in the field - if demand dropped the harvesting crews wouldn't come back many times. Occasionally we'd write off an entre field if it wasn't spotless and the demand just wasn't there. This wastage didn't make it into the food waste statistics either as it's only monitored once it has been cut & carted off the field.

 

[HAM135]

Many thanks for your reply,to my unusual question.
I asked the question as when I see all that equal size veg in the supermarket I always think, “how do growers do that”. Is the size of potatoes manipulated to a degree by the amount of water they receive, so most potatoes have to irrigated to get the correct amount of water at certain times to influence tuber size.?
Makes growing cereals look easy in comparison.

Potatoes will all go across a grader after harvest,this is where the sizing is done,we sell as dug which means the packer does the grading,we are only paid for the potatoes 45-85mm so this is what we are aiming for,a bit annoying though when a few yrs ago i was having a look at the spuds in the local Asda and came across a bag with my name on it with 1kg of baby potatoes(40mm down which we dont get paid for)at £1 kg

 

[Pilatus]

Potatoes will all go across a grader after harvest,this is where the sizing is done,we sell as dug which means the packer does the grading,we are only paid for the potatoes 45-85mm so this is what we are aiming for,a bit annoying though when a few yrs ago i was having a look at the spuds in the local Asda and came across a bag with my name on it with 1kg of baby potatoes(40mm down which we dont get paid for)at £1 kg

That must be rather frustrating , to put it mildly.

 

[Pilatus]

When in the supermarket, it really frustrates me when I see an occasional customer picking over veg which all looks the same to me,and then if that isnt enough they pull out the crate,and take the item of veg they are looking for from the crate below.

 

[teslacoils]

I laugh in morissons when whole extended families are doing the shopping and mum selects a vegitable and everyone has to hold it and look at it before it goes in the basket. Most veg I just buy a load of - carrots just get scrubbed and diced anyway so who cares what they look like.

 

[Devil's advocate]

Potatoes will all go across a grader after harvest,this is where the sizing is done,we sell as dug which means the packer does the grading,we are only paid for the potatoes 45-85mm so this is what we are aiming for,a bit annoying though when a few yrs ago i was having a look at the spuds in the local Asda and came across a bag with my name on it with 1kg of baby potatoes(40mm down which we dont get paid for)at £1 kg

Can't like that, dreadful.

I used to grow caulis, calibrese (broccoli) and cabbages. The calibrese & cabbages were trimmed down to the size wanted in the field. We worked on around 50% wastage in the field - if demand dropped the harvesting crews wouldn't come back many times. Occasionally we'd write off an entre field if it wasn't spotless and the demand just wasn't there. This wastage didn't make it into the food waste statistics either as it's only monitored once it has been cut & carted off the field.

Thats tougth.

We try to harvest 80% but we are only small scale. Often 95% harvest but we get those 80% waste disasters mostly due to weather events that pull the average down.

 

[shakerator]

Potatoes will all go across a grader after harvest,this is where the sizing is done,we sell as dug which means the packer does the grading,we are only paid for the potatoes 45-85mm so this is what we are aiming for,a bit annoying though when a few yrs ago i was having a look at the spuds in the local Asda and came across a bag with my name on it with 1kg of baby potatoes(40mm down which we dont get paid for)at £1 kg

Legal I presume to do so?

 

[Lowland1]

The most difficult part of field scale vegetables is dealing with people whether its your harvesting gangs, your packers or your customer. Generally most harvesting is done on piecework so people only want to harvest the easiest (which is usually the first pick) The problem is your profit is in the last pick which is probably the least productive and hardest pick of all. Likewise if you try and get the maximum out of your crop in the packhouse it slows throughput increasing costs and also upsetting your packers. Finally you send it to the Supermarkets who depending on whether the QC is having a good day or bad day or if they don't have too much will possibly accept it . Of course if its in short supply no problem anything will go.Then you have do deal with the High up folk to get paid eventually these people are very good at trying to find anything to claim for to reduce what you get paid. It's all good fun.

 

[Flat 10]

The most difficult part of field scale vegetables is dealing with people whether its your harvesting gangs, your packers or your customer. Generally most harvesting is done on piecework so people only want to harvest the easiest (which is usually the first pick) The problem is your profit is in the last pick which is probably the least productive and hardest pick of all. Likewise if you try and get the maximum out of your crop in the packhouse it slows throughput increasing costs and also upsetting your packers. Finally you send it to the Supermarkets who depending on whether the QC is having a good day or bad day or if they don't have too much will possibly accept it . Of course if its in short supply no problem anything will go.Then you have do deal with the High up folk to get paid eventually these people are very good at trying to find anything to claim for to reduce what you get paid. It's all good fun.

I couldn't do it. I take my hat off to you sir.