News potato harvest
Dutch contractor comes to the rescue of Britons
It has become a well-known job for contractor René Cobuses from Horssen in Gelderland. At the beginning of November he shipped his Dewulf bunker harvester to England to help with the potato harvest there. "The situation this year is even worse than in 2012," he says.
CoBUSes, who runs the Piepersrooien contracting company, does not shy away from a challenge. When he was asked to come and harvest in England in 2012, he jumped into this adventure. The harvest was so wet that the last potatoes were lifted in the spring of 2013. About 1 year later he went back again with the harvester.
Photos: R. CoBUSes
Harvest a nightmare
The arable farmer and contractor has now built up quite a few contacts among British potato growers and processors in the west of England. With several hundred millimeters of rainfall in recent months, the harvest there is again a nightmare. CoBUSes, which has completed its own harvesting activities in the Netherlands, had its Dewulf harvester shipped to England on 6 November by low loader.
The contractor is now grubbing in county Herefordshire, against Wales in the southwest of the country. When he is finished there, the grubbing work will continue further north in Shropshire. "I have the impression that it is even wetter at the moment than in 2012," he says from the harvester. "I estimate that in the area where I am now, 50% of the potatoes are still in the ground. Much of the half that was dug up was taken off the land under poor conditions. You have to calculate that eventually about 25 % of this is good product. What we are harvesting now are beautiful potatoes. There is no rot in the batch and they are nice and clean."
Let sit until spring
During a trip to the Dewulf importer in the east of the country, CoBUSes saw enough misery pass by. The harvest is far from over. He also notices that growers are now resigned. "In the pub I talk to growers who leave the potatoes in the ground until next spring. They don't rot, and because it doesn't freeze much here, they take the gamble."
At the moment he is digging up chips potatoes, which have to get out of the ground as soon as possible because of the high price. He is free to look for harvesting work, but is helped by processor McCain. However, the grubbing up takes place on its own initiative. "Soil in the southwest is loess/sandy," he says. "If you could drive well, you could dig them out in no time. However, the top 50 centimeters are snot, which makes driving a problem. Since it is very steep, grubbing uphill is mainly problematic. There are stones under the cultivation soil, which makes the land has a good foundation."
Brexit influences
Cobus's England adventure has an extra element of tension this season: Brexit. "No one can give you guarantees or tell you what to do," he says. "I want to avoid having to re-introduce the harvester into the European Union if there is a Brexit. I've had everything properly documented. Hopefully that will help. If the Brexit goes ahead, I'll knock on the door of the Dutch embassy There will probably be an arrangement that makes it possible to bring the machine back to the Netherlands."
In the United Kingdom it continues to rain heavily incessantly. The county of Yorkshire is particularly affected by massive flooding. Flooding is reported in 40 places. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is organizing a Cobra emergency meeting (with his ministers) on Tuesday 12 November to discuss the problems. Still, according to Johnson, there is no question of a national disaster. On Thursday, November 14, another large amount of precipitation is expected, up to 60 millimeters locally in a short time.
Niels van der Boom
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