News on Potato Cultivation from United Kingdom

Potato and cereal crops are likely to have been heavily damaged by the recent devastating floods across the United Kingdom, farmers have warned.

Crop Insights tool HarvestEye has announced the appointment of Harry Tinson as its new general manager, bringing to the team expertise in global B2B sales from across the engineering and transport sectors.

Jersey Potato exporters were able to negotiate a better price from UK supermarkets this year to help cover rising costs but blight and poor weather meant it was still a difficult season.

New E-series reel irrigators from Bauer have several improved features to make operation and maintenance easier while maintaining the product’s outstanding reputation for strength, performance and durability

A biostimulant brand that is increasingly popular with potato growers will make its debut at this year’s British Potato show in Harrogate. Algifol, which is a seaweed-based biostimulant, will be on stand 123A in Hall 1 at the November event.

The UK potato sector has been going through a better spell this year, but it did take a long time for the potato shortage to feed back to growers as there was still crop from the previous year on the market and the prices didn’t increase until around mid-May.

Extreme weather incidents are serving to rock Europe’s potato industry to its very foundations. Last year was actually the second warmest year on record in Europe. The drought conditions resulted in a dramatic downturn in overall potato output.

CNH Industrial and ONE SMART SPRAY, a joint venture between Bosch and BASF, have signed a collaboration agreement to integrate the latter’s advanced spraying system within CNH Industrial’s agricultural brand product portfolios.

Extreme weather events pose a significant challenge to potato cultivation. Heat and drought stress reduces productivity, causes physiological defects in tubers, and damages crops.

A new predictive method has shown a way to better select parents for new potato varieties, offering a blueprint for better potatoes and a way to speed up the production of higher yield varieties.

Defra and UKRI, as part of the Farming Innovation Programme, recently announced funding for 'Potato-LITE' – a multimillion pound project over four years

Ground-Sensing technology TuberScan - developed by Agri-tech business B-hive Innovations and partners - is entering its final phase of testing both overseas and now in the UK following the start of this year’s weather-delayed potato growing season.

Following the success of last year’s demonstration programme, GRIMME UK is once again giving people a chance to see the GL 420 Exacta potato planter in operation.

In light of the new rules in the United Kingdom on the use of inhibited urea, announced on 22 March, farmers are being encouraged to check levels of efficiency when purchasing urea, to maximise their investment when complying to new regulations.

With weed control a key challenge for farmers, and reduced sensitivity to some herbicides a continuing problem. New product trials by FMC have demonstrated that effective controls are on the horizon.

Tips to improve soil health from David Newton of Timac Agro for farmers in England to help them meet the new Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) ‘arable soils’ standard.

Farmers across Scotland are being urged to have their soils tested and analysed in the face of continuing high input prices and ahead of changes to Scottish agricultural support schemes.

Biostimulants can act as an insurance policy for growers this spring, especially as another wave of frosts threatens to knock crops back. So far, winter has been wet and except some sharp frosts, relatively mild – resulting in many autumn sown crops being further forward than usual.