Planting in 2016: more than just putting tubers into the ground CULTIVATION AND TECHNOLOGY solution of water, fertiliser and Amistar. I’ve only done that for a year, though, as a test. I’m not sure whether it worked because, last year in June, we had a downpour of 150 millimetres in a very short period of time. We’re going to give it another go this year and see if it’s useful. The best thing is to apply the polyphosphate separately. The mix of Amistar and polyphosphate can get lumpy; at least that’s our experience. You get the least problems if you empty the tank completely and then fill it up again with the mix. If you fill to a half-full tank, things tend to go wrong. To prevent this, we want to connect a separate delivery circuit with a pump, hoses and spray nozzles for the liquid manure. I’m thinking of a detachable structure of a 1,000 litre container on the spring tine harrow which we always fill half-full, to keep the weight down. The required amount of polyphosphate could then always be taken along with every tractor/tipper combination in a container in the front of the tractor. Straight driving on GPS ‘To think this up and carry it out is quite a task’, Evenhuis laughs. ‘All in all, we’re still a long way from using GPS for this. Although we’ve had GPS on our tractors ever since 1998. So far we’ve only used it to drive straight, which is at least much more comfortable for the drivers. If we also want to control the planting machines with GPS, we still have a lot of work to do. To start with, we need a great deal more knowledge about the soil, and data on fertilisation, varieties and planting distances. Because how do you know exactly where to give more or less fertiliser or when the planting distances FARM INFORMATION ON CROP FARM AND CONTRACTING FIRM EVENhuis Pieter Evenhuis runs the Evenhuis General Partnership (crop farm and contracting firm) together with this wife José. They have a permanent workforce of three including Marnix Evenhuis, Pieter’s brother. The company is situated in the Giethoorn polder along the edge of the well-known De Weerribben nature reserve and close by the touristic village of Giethoorn. The total farm area is 400 hectares, predominantly leased land. The largest section of the total crop area - 280 hectares - is used for the cultivation of French-fry potatoes. Two-thirds of the harvest is sold to Lamb Weston / Meijer (LWM) and one third to McCain. Evenhuis delivers the entire harvest under contract. The contract for delivery to LWM was concluded, together with five other big French-fry potato growers, in the North-West Overijssel and South-East Friesland regions (with, on average, 200 hectares). The varieties that Evenhuis grows for LWM are Zorba, Innovator and Fontane. Daisy is the variety that’s grown for McCain. About half the harvest is delivered directly from the farm; the other half is stored there. All the necessary equipment for the cultivation of the potatoes is also on the farm. The contract work section of the business mainly focuses on sowing and spraying silage maize. The partnership also grows silage maize itself, approx. 120 hectares in total. In order to be able to claim the greening payment from the new European subsidy system, Evenhuis will have to grow around 9 hectares of cereals. ‘How do you know exactly where to give more or less fertiliser or when the planting distances should be shorter or longer?’ These are all questions Pieter Evenhuis has no precise answers for. 42 Potato World 2016 • number 1 Pagina 41
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