Waldersey Farms is steadily increasing its potato acreage, also after Brexit CU LTIVATION AND TECHNOLOGY large farm can irrigate 65% of the total of 13,500 acres, which it currently owns, which is more than 5,500 hectares. Near the basin, a small pumping station was built to pump the water into the canal system. In order to have sufficient water available on the entire farm, also in view of climate change, Loxton wants to build another basin next year with a capacity of 60 million gallons, or 272 million litres. Size is disappointing this year Irrigation is most needed on the 2,750 hectares of pure black peat soils, the Black Fens. In addition, Waldersey Farm also has the same area of Silt Fens, these are peaty soils mixed with sandy clay. The sandy clay holds moisture much better and that saves a few rounds of irrigation per season, Loxton says with a laugh. The Agrias, which Waldersey is harvesting at the time of our visit, come from the Silt Fens. You can see that in the wheel tracks, among other things, where the peaty soil sticks together more through the sandy clay than on the soil of the Black Fens. You can also see this on the harvested tubers which show cloggy spots of sticky soil. Thanks in part to the high organic matter of the peat soils, which is between 16 and 18 percent, good yields can be achieved here in years with normal rainfall. With a variety such as Agria, the yield can quickly reach 55 tons per hectare. This year, the yield on the non-irrigated plots, mostly the Silt Fens, averages 13.5 tons per acre, which comes to 34 tons per hectare. Not so great, the size is very disappointing and you can see that too, because the really big ones that you’d expect from an Agria just aren’t there. The percentage of 50 millimetres upwards may well be acceptable at over 60 percent, but as their main purpose is processing into French fries for fish and chip shops, it’s certainly not a topper. What is good is the free market price – which at this time is in line with the mainland of Europe – and that will certainly compensate for the lower yield, expects Loxton. Financially, the potato yield will be considerably higher this year than the year before, because that THE FENS The Dutchman Sir Cornelis Vermuyden, born in Sint-Maartensdijk in the province of Zeeland and a hydraulic engineer by profession, achieved his greatest fame in the United Kingdom with the reclamation of The Fens, a large peat area in the central/east of England, which lies between King’s Lynn, Cambridge and Lincoln. An area of more than 400,000 hectares, approximately the size of the Dutch province of North Holland. Under his direction, The Fens were developed into an extensive system of drainage canals, drains and locks, Robert Loxton shows us on an area map. Vermuyden completed the project in 1637, but was criticised a lot at the time by British engineers who felt that the system Under the direction of the Dutch hydraulic engineer Sir Cornelis Vermuyden, The Fens were developed into an extensive system of drainage canals, drains and locks, Robert Loxton shows us on an area map. wasn’t working properly. In order to carry out the work in The Fens, Vermuyden brought hundreds of workers to England from Holland and Zeeland. The Dutch influence is still there. The landscape with polders, watercourses and farms still looks very Dutch. For example, channels have names like South Holland Main Drain and Forty Foot or Vermuyden’s Drain. Also place names betray the presence of the Dutch at the time. Examples are Nordelph (Noord-Delft) and Southery (Zouterij). Dutch family names can be found on gravestones in the cemeteries of Wisbech, Downham Market and Swaffham. In Wisbech, you can visit a small museum where the history of the area is explained in words and pictures. During the English Civil War, The Fens were forcibly flooded again. Vermuyden won’t have minded that much, because in 1649 he was commissioned to reclaim the area once again. Scottish prisoners of war, who had been captured during the Battle of Dunbar were the ones to carry out the work. In 1652, the low-lying land was ready for livestock and arable farming. Because the commissioning authorities postponed some of the work for financial reasons, Vermuyden’s plan was never fully implemented, which is why he got the blame when the peat soil further inland began to settle much faster than the area close to the sea. This made drainage impossible and buildings also started to settle. As a result, by the end of the seventeenth century, a large part of the reclaimed land was once again under water. In the eighteenth century, the population tried to get the water out again with the help of windmills. Three centuries later, between 1949 and 1953, two Dutch hydraulic engineers, Johan van Veen and Johan Ringers, would again advise the British government on the drainage of The Fens. In fact, their plan largely corresponded to a never-executed proposal by Vermuyden. It was not until 1962 that the water management situation really improved. Remarkably enough, this happened with the help of those old original drawings by Vermuyden. was dramatic and even loss-making according to the director. At that time, yields were high, as in the rest of the EU-5 potato countries, and the free-market prices were unprecedentedly low. Relatively a lot of land for sale It will be clear by now that Waldersey Farms is a special farm, also for British standards. The owner is a pension fund whose name the management does not want to reveal. In the year 1982, the pension fund bought the first farmland and leased it to Waldersey. It was an area of several hundred hectares called Frithy Bridge in the heart of The Fens. ‘It was Potato World 2019 • number 1 29 Pagina 28
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