Potato growers are being urged to quantify their costs in order to make serious savings across a rage of inputs.
Cutting spiralling crop production costs was high on the agenda for more than 240 growers at the Potato Council’s East Midlands Potato Day last Tuesday.
Tim Pratt, from farm energy expert FEC Services, said those who take time to monitor their expenditure could be make significant savings.
He said: “Monitoring your electricity costs is relatively easy, while fuel use can present a challenge, but the results can be startling or even disturbing.
“If you’re using a diesel pump to irrigate, for example, that may cost the equivalent of 20p per kilowatt hour to run - twice the cost of electricity,” he added.
The initial results from a Potato Council-funded project monitoring electricity use in a number of commercial potato stores were revealed at the event.
For one business involved in the study, the figures revealed one of its stores was using twice the energy to chill a pre-pack crop than the other. The surprise results prompted the grower to close the store down early. The insulation is being improved ready for the 2008-09 storage season, with the cost expected to be repaid within three years.
Duncan Worth, from Manor Farm near Spalding, Lincolnshire, hosted the event. His farm is taking part in the Potato Council-funded Grower Collaborations project, run by Cambridge University Farm (CUF), in which five farms across the UK are pitching agronomy of commercial crops based on CUF research against their conventional practice.
He said: “To really discover where the benefits are, we are doing a lot more monitoring, such as measuring crop cover closely, and have to provide very detailed information on our agronomy practice. But there is robust research on trial here, implementing fairly radical changes. If just one element bears fruit, it will have a significant advantage for us.”
Other speakers at the East Midlands event, in association with McCain and QV Foods, outlined the latest advice on chlorpropham (CIPC) and the Potato Council-led industry initiative to minimise residues.
Dr Pat Haydock from Harper Adams University College updated growers on potato cyst nematode control, while other field sessions focussed on efficient fertiliser use and herbicide trials.
The event was part of a series of initiatives is part of a Summer of Knowledge campaign launched by Potato Council to deliver the latest technical and regulatory information direct to growers, who are facing rising costs and regulation, but a shrinking armoury of crop protection products.
No comments yet