Dutch Crop tour onions - week 37
Onions fly over the harvesting mat at a rapid pace
The seed onions are flying out quickly this week, whether they have been ironed or not. In Drenthe this resulted in a nice full swath. The plots where the onions are still planted are also being harvested quickly. As a result, the 2023 harvest season can go down as short and smooth.
Many onion plots have already been cleared in a short time. Six out of ten onion plots have already been cleared Boerenbusiness Crop tour. Due to late spring, onion seed from south to north has largely gone into the ground in the same period (end of April to mid-May). This now ensures that the onion harvest coincides reasonably well throughout the country, while traditionally the south starts earlier. On some of the plots the soil was already too hard to harvest onions, but the (thunder) showers yesterday and last night (September 12) have softened the top layer again.
Waited for lower temperature
The first plots were cleared last week and the first plot in Zeewolde (Flevoland) has now been harvested. Grower Jan Berend Biesheuvel indicated that he waited before landing the onions due to the high temperature, because this did not improve the quality. Now that the temperature has finally dropped and the onions have been in the windrow for about a week, he has brought in the yellow onions.
This week a considerable number of plots from the Crop Tour were harvested. On Monday the onions were harvested in Philippine (Zeeland) and some of the onions were also in the swath on the sand in Wezup in Drenthe. Onion grower Arjen Jakobs expects a good yield on his plot in Wezup, which was already sown in mid-April. Trial harvesting yielded a yield of around 80 tons per hectare. But there are also lesser places on the plot, says Jakobs. "We cleared about 2 hectares of the plot. That went well, but there is also a less good spot with fewer tons. Ultimately, it is about the total yield that you harvest." In addition, the yields per plot are very variable, Jakobs indicates.
The harvest also went under good conditions in Philippine. Grower Jacky Dieleman started his first block of seed onions of the season with his new harvesting machine. In terms of yield, he hopes to achieve around 40 tons per hectare gross.
Last Tuesday the onions were also harvested at Klaasjan Boer in Kortgene, a little further north in Zeeland. Despite the high temperature and the fact that there had been no precipitation for some time, the soil was still soft and the harvesting went very well. The crop had worn out fairly quickly in recent days after machine ironing.
In Kimswerd, Friesland, the soil was too hard to dig, so Reinder Hogenhout decided to turn on the reel. After an irrigation of 6 millimeters, onion harvesting went well and the plot is now in the swath. But it will remain at that plot for the time being. Last evening and night a total of 35 millimeters fell, making it too wet to harvest.
Jesse Torringa
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