Potato Review

44 POTATO REVIEW MARCH/APRIL 2023 CROP MANAGEMENT Shropshire grower gets ahead using digital agronomy Data-driven systems have the potential to transform crop management decisions by giving growers real time insight to crop development and its implications. Potato Review visits an early adopter of the Crop4Sight system to learn more. M ANY see the future of agriculture as data driven and Richard Maddocks of Wilfred Maddocks Ltd, Shropshire is now one of them, after using a Crop4Sight system over several seasons. e third-generation family farming business started out with the crop management platform during its development phase and has been incorporating the continuous functionality updates ever since. Richard said: “It’s now helping from the time seed arrives in the spring, right through to harvest. It’s also helping our customers, as we have lots of information about our crops at our ngertips at any stage.” Seed module One of the most recent additions to the Crop4Sight system is its seed module and 2023 will be the second spring that Richard has used it in his pre-planting planning process. Working out the optimum seed rate is key to marketable yield and hitting the most valuable size fraction for the target market. Lower seed rates establish fewer plants and give space and resources for tubers to bulk, so growers aiming for a high baker percentage will lower rates to maximise the 65mm-85mm fraction. Conversely, higher seed rates see the crop produce a higher number of smaller tubers which create the best size distribution for seed and salad crops. Fine tuning seed rates can also help growers manipulate how quickly crops reach the right size for their market, with lower seed rates allowing crops to bulk faster for early harvesting. Richard says he has been impressed with the performance of the seed module, having used it with Produce Solutions Agronomist Fiona Law-Eadie to formulate seed rates for packing and processing crops. e required inputs include variety, planting date, seed size (determined by tuber count per 50kg of seed) and 50% emergence dates of the seed crop. e 50% emergence dates allow the system to calculate the seed lot’s chronological age – the elapsed time between 50% emergence of the seed crop and planting of the ware crop – which in uences stem numbers in the daughter crop. Crop4Sight relates this grower information to data from independent variety trials and historic commercial data to calculate the right seed rate to achieve the target stem and tuber population. “It’s surprising the di erence in seed rate we see between planting on April 25th compared to March 25th, particularly when using larger 45-55mm seed. It can be as much as 25% less seed to hit the target stem population,” said Richard. is year’s seed rate calculations have helped Richard work round a seed shortage for a key variety. It allowed him to explore the impact of planting date on the seed rate and choose a planting window that will require less seed without compromising marketable yield.“It’s taken the guesswork out the planning process and that has been a big help with supply issues this year. It’s dead easy to use and the predicted stem and tuber numbers have been very accurate” Produce Solutions Agronomist Fiona Law-Eadie and Richard were impressed with the performance of the seed module, having used it to formulate seed rates for packing and processing crops.