12/02/2022
It's been a busy 10 days.
Calving is well underway with calves from our homebred bull. Next week our stabiliser sired calves should start popping out.
More potatoes have gone to the factory out of our stores.
We have calibrated our fertiliser spreader to make sure the spread pattern is correct to achieve an even spread.
All potato fields for 2023 have been soil tested for Potato Cyst Nematodes (PCN) so we can plan ahead on our Intergrated Pest Management (IMP) plan to make sure we make the correct decisions to reduce the use of pesticides, but still maximise yield.
Finally, we have dug some of our soils to start benchmarking our soil health with a Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure (VESS). We should also be able to get an idea of which practices have a negative or positive effect on our soils, after all, our soils are the foundation of all of our crops. We are hoping to be able to build soil health to rely less on manufactured inputs. This gives us more resilience to extreme weather, reduces reliance on unstable commodity markets and reduces our carbon footprint. We also test our soils for organic matter and this year have sellected 4 fields to test for carbon in our soils with the plan to expand our knowledge and put us in a good position for the evolving carbon market.
