Waldersey Farms is steadily increasing its potato acreage, also after Brexit CU LTIVATION AND TECHNOLOGY Waldersey Farms sells the bulk of the potatoes on the free market, 80 percent to be exact. This includes both packaged and unpackaged sales under its own Royal Norfolk brand. Customers are fish and chips shops. dropped from 60 to 5 percent. Loxton isn’t very happy about that this year, because the traditional British variety achieved the highest yield of all the varieties grown this season, ranging from 54 to 60 tons per hectare, all grown on irrigated Black Fens fields. Mainly cultivation for the free market As briefly mentioned, Waldersey sells the bulk of its potatoes on the free market, 80 percent to be exact. This includes both packaged and unpackaged sales under its own Royal Norfolk brand. Customers are fish and chip shops. For a group of regular customers from the nearby region, 10 percent of the potatoes under contract are sold in bags. The remaining 10 percent of the total contracted volume is sold unpackaged to French-fry manufacturer McCain. On average, Waldersey Farms earns more from free sales than from contracts, Loxton says. According to calculations by the British potato organisation AHDB, the cost price is somewhere between 15 and 16 pounds per 100 kilograms. According to Loxton, you already know in advance that you’ll lose out with the current average contract prices, because these are lower. ‘With the free sales we try to do better than that, and it usually works. This year too, we hope, but certainly not last year. That was a dramatic year for us with an average price of 9.40 pounds (10.60 euros) per 100 kilograms. The lowest price ever for a potato lot was 6.50 pounds per 100 kilograms. Step-by-step innovation in storage Fortunately, this season seems to be ending better than the previous one and manager Andrew Kew, too, is satisfied with the progress of the current harvest. He sees the potatoes coming in under ideal conditions. Last year, we invested in a receiving hopper with a Tong pregrading unit and we’re now benefiting from that’, he tells us during the storage process. Four employees are removing as much of the haulm as possible from the product. ‘We’re now coping with some extra haulm because, with the Agria and Markies varieties, it’s still quite solid during lifting’, explains Kew. They also remove the hard clods and a few tubers with bad spots. It can all be done at a relatively slow pace, because the weather conditions are good and the hectare yields are lower. All potatoes are stored in their own storehouses. They’re not all super-modern, but they are in good condition, according to Kew. ‘Some buildings are old, but we won’t replace them yet. Like other sensible arable farmers, we’re investing step-by-step.’ Waldersey Farms currently has a storage capacity for 18,000 tons of potatoes. Next year, the construction of a new storehouse will start with a further 4,000 tons of storage space and we’ll also add a mechanical cooling, says Kew. Furthermore, the company has completely mechanised the cultivation of its potatoes. Until last year, they still had two-row planting machines. One of them has now been replaced by a 4-row planter. Waldersey currently has two two-row Dewulf 3060 bunker lifters that harvest both potatoes and onions. We’ll get rid of one next year, which will then be replaced by a four-row Kwatro, which will only lift potatoes. Kew intends to use the 3060 mainly for onions. More harvesting capacity is needed because the crop farm wants to expand the cropping area. ● Leo Hanse and Jaap Delleman All potatoes are stored in their own storehouses. They are not all supermodern, but they are in good condition, according to the manager of Waldersey Farms. Fortunately, this season seems to be better than the previous one. Manager Andrew Kew sees the potatoes coming in under ideal conditions. Potato World 2019 • number 1 33 Pagina 32
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