'Which farmer wants to take so many risks?'

The philosophy of arable farmer René Mesken is clear: growing French fries potatoes and onions on a large scale in an efficient and rewarding way. The down-to-earth Frisian, participant in the Boerenbusiness Crop tour, taking risks. This is precisely where he sees the biggest bottleneck in the coming years. Not only for his own company, but also for colleagues.

The following will follow during the 2024 growing season Boerenbusiness Crop tour again ten plots with Innovator chip potatoes. From planting to harvest, the participating arable farmers take us through the cultivation and decisions they make during the season. In this series of interviews we each get to know one grower, his company, vision and strategy. The Frisian René Mesken is now a well-known participant in the Crop Tour.

"My company specializes in the cultivation of French fries potatoes and onions," Mesken explains. For the onions and beets I have a collaboration with Klaas Oenze de Graaf from Wierum. "At the moment these are the Fontane and Innovator varieties, which are mainly sold in the free trade. I am very pleased to work with Jan Bakker on the sales of these French fries potatoes, onions and beets. We fertilize the potatoes with liquid manure in the spring. We meet the potassium requirement by spreading Protamylasse in the spring. This is a residual product from starch potato processing at Avebe. The nitrogen requirement is further met with fertilizer.

The seed potatoes for the French fries potatoes come from ATR cultivation. "This year I had to buy E's as basic seed potatoes for €1 per kilo. That is very expensive," Mesken notes laconically. His approach to business operations is characterized by a focus on large-scale and efficiency. “Because of the size of my company, it is important for me to grow in a simple way,” he says. "I work closely with a cultivation advisor for advice on crop protection. He gives me a note which crop protection products I should use and I follow this advice."

Taking risks
Mesken indicates that he is willing to take risks as an arable farmer. "For example, we are going to grow 50 hectares of yellow onions this year, without a fixed price for sales. That is quite risky. Fortunately, we have a good trading partner who knows the trade well. As far as the choice of crop is concerned, I like we like to make it as simple as possible. We mainly grow French fries potatoes and onions because of the trade opportunities.

Machinery
An arable farm of this size requires a well-equipped machine park in order to have strength during peak periods. "In addition to the trucks and loading wagon, we have one planting machine, a spading machine, a six-furrow plough, and a cultivator of seven meters wide. The potatoes are harvested with a four-row Dewulf Kwatro on caterpillar tracks, which allows us to harvest efficiently and quickly. We also have two spraying machines, the largest of which is a tandem axle sprayer that can spray 52 hectares with one tank. We also have a three-axle high discharge trailer of 25 tons and a 6 meter wide cultivator for cultivating grassland. There are four irrigation sets with pumps. The machinery is essential to our company. Given the size and the distances we have to travel, we constantly strive to apply the latest techniques so that we can make optimal use of the machines."

Water management and land use
Mesken explains: "We strive for as little irrigation as possible. Before the start of the irrigation season, we carefully look at the needs of our crops. A good example of this was last year. We were the first to start irrigating our onions. seed did not germinate as desired, so we decided to irrigate once to get the onions started. This was just enough to grow. This approach prevented the soil from becoming saturated during the wet period that followed. Selective irrigation prevented damage to the crop. We strive to keep a close eye on the soil moisture and use good quality water when irrigating. Fortunately, this is possible with water from the IJsselmeer. In this way we can make good use of our 'natural resources'. ."

Large-scale farming
"I sometimes wonder who will want to take so many risks as a grower in the foreseeable future - say within about five years," sighs the arable farmer. "And I don't mean the executive work, but taking on the risks. I predict that the demand for food will increase in the coming years. Due to government regulations, the production supply is shrinking, while the world population is increasing. Our government runs half of the farmers the neck, so that land becomes available. The question in my mind is: who still opts for large-scale agriculture?

René concludes: "Although my work demands a lot of my time, I attach great importance to a good balance between work and my private life. I have one goal and that is: I want to live life with pleasure. With everything choices I make , I ask myself: does this strengthen my passion, or not? I have no idea yet what the future will bring. My undercurrent is large-scale agriculture. How that will manifest itself is still open to me. Maybe it is for me It is also possible to farm on 40 hectares of land, but that is not where my passion lies. My aim is to feed the world with my method of large-scale cultivation."

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