Potato Review

24 POTATO REVIEW NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019 HARVESTERS Youwait for a newpotato harvester then three come along at once. AndrewLee has been updating the eet at High yer Farms near Ely. A ndrew Lee is partial to his new Grimme harvesters and thinks of them as his AstonMartins. He is convinced that they are perfect for the job of lifting a substantial acreage of chipping potatoes and he persuaded the Cambridgeshire partnership to take delivery of three two-row Varitron Platinummachines in time for this autumn’s campaign. He is an a rmed devotee of self-propelledmachines, having recently traded in the last of his trailed GTs, reducing the eet fromnine to just six. Grandfather Peter established P. J. Lee and Sons back in 1957. e business is currently operated as a partnership with Andrew in charge of the potato operation, brother Christopher handling nance and running the farm o ce with sister Pretoria and their father Richard responsible for marketing the crop. Estate manager Simon Quince looks after day to day running of the farmwhile Uncle David handles cultivations and cereal drilling. “We’re currently farming 12,000 acres across a 35 mile radius,” said Andrew. “Our central base is at Sutton Gault which is where we have our packhouse. e vast majority of our potato storage is also there but we do source outside storage where we are renting land from growers who have ceased production. Sometimes the two go hand in hand. If a grower has invested in a suitable store we can give him a long-term return and that gets us onto farms and gives us an advantage.” Potatoes are the most important enterprise on the farm by a long chalk. “We always quote tonnage so it can be anywhere between 36,000 and 42,000 tonnes a year depending on yield and area. e most we have ever grown was 52,000 tonnes. All the crop is grown for fresh chips and is sold via four main merchants, with only 5–10% of the total contracted on long-standing relationships, and nothing going direct. My father handles that side of the business and he is trading six days a week from 6.30 in the morning over a pot of tea. “It’s all done on day-to-day prices and through the good years we have made our money to reinvest on the back of free-buy. We strive for continuity of supply so that we can deliver from October all the way through to June and sometimes into July. ➜ Buying Platinum delivers major cost savings Andrew Lee Andrew Lee’s Tectron harvesters are due to be replaced.

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