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Helping arable farmers to increase returns
How many seed potatoes does an arable farmer need to achieve optimal returns? And what is the best planting distance for potatoes to achieve the highest possible yield? To answer these questions, precision agriculture specialist Bram van Oers and his colleagues from the Precision Cultivation Plus team are working on a calculation tool: 'the seed potato indicator'. "We want arable farmers to be able to calculate how much seed they need to order at the start of the season."
You need a lot of data to make a reliable calculation tool for the arable farmer. The specialists of the Precision Cultivation Plus team get these from research and practice. "Since 2017, we have done 1.067 germination tests with different varieties and lots from all over the country. So we are getting more and more data, which makes the seed potato indicator more and more reliable."
Information
The specialists have been conducting germination tests in a conditioned room in Oude-Tonge for years. "Growers from all over the country supply seed potato samples that we put out in trays. We then look at how many stems appear on the tubers. One variety produces fewer stems than the other. The larger the tuber, the more stems. we put in a system." In addition, Bram and his colleagues are looking at how the tubers and stems develop in the field. "We do trial harvesting at the end of the season for this. We take samples at different places on the plot. We do this from many growers and with different varieties. We have now harvested more than 3,5 kilometers by hand and collected 1.254 samples. We also put the information about this in the computer."
Sort and count
"Our experience is that growers often plant too little. Some varieties, a grower plants as standard at 30 centimeters without looking closely at the average seed weight. In that case, too few stems come up and a planting distance of 26 centimeters would have been better. often the same planting distance based on experience or habituation." The most common size of seed potatoes is 35 to 50 millimeters. Within that size there is a large variation in tuber weight, which makes it difficult to aim for the optimal number of stems. "We therefore recommend sorting the tubers into coarse and fine sizes before planting and counting them. This is an enormous advantage because you can plant the smaller tubers closer together. You plant potatoes individually and 5 centimeters further. Planting them apart can already have an influence on the result. It happens regularly that we advise, for example, 30 tons, while a grower has only ordered 26 tons and can't order more. In that case you don't have to plant on the entire plot." The plot itself also plays an important role. "With Precision Cultivation Plus we look at the high and low soil potential of the plot. Variable planting. This allows you to better distribute the seed potatoes according to the differences in vigor within the plot. We think it is important that growers are aware of this. we are further developing the seed potato indicator so that growers can make the calculations before ordering seed potatoes, for example with an app."
More return
"We want to use the seed potato indicator to show what a larger quantity of seed can mean for the return." The tool is still in its infancy, but now offers enough data to provide good advice for about ten varieties. "We have data from several years. It also contains information about weather conditions. For example, it was very dry in 2018, which affected the yield. We remove such extremes, which makes our data more reliable. That is why we can give good advice to set the planting machine with the correct planting distances.At the moment growers don't pay enough attention to the stems and how many tubers exactly grow. source material."
Would you also like more return or information without obligation? take contact contact the specialists of Precision Cultivation Plus.
