•
SPOT FARM RESULTS
•
THE
VEGETABLE
FARMER •
MAY 2018
S
peaking at the Oxford
Farming Conference in
January, AHDB CEO
Jane King said; “Last year, we
made it clear that a priority
for the AHDB would be to
speed up innovation and
productivity growth on farm
to help farmers prepare for
Brexit and beyond.
“We’ve been busy
coordinating our knowledge
exchange work and building
on the success of our
Monitor and Strategic Farms.
Nowwe have an impressive
network of businesses all
looking to adapt and
improve through the power
of farmer-to-farmer
learning.”
Last month AHDB Potatoes
unveiled its latest Strategic
Potato (SPot) Farm in the
heart of the East Midlands
and North East potato
production region. The news
was announced at ameeting
at South Cave near Hull
which also shared results
from other SPot Farms
around the country.
As Graham Bannister,
Knowledge Exchange
Manager for Northern
England pointed out; “We do
all this work around the UK
but we don’t bring it here [to
the North East]. However,
that is going to change,” he
said. “Having a Strategic
Farm in the North is going to
be very good for the region.”
However, the essence of the
meetingwas to update
growers on the work being
carried out at SPot Farms
elsewhere in the country, and
so Knowledge Exchange
Managers and agronomists
presented the results of some
of their local projects.
Claire Hodge described
work undertaken at family-
owned Bruce Farms near
Perth in the Strathmore
Valley. “The farmwanted
additional support to give
lots of measuring and
monitoring,” she said,
explaining the farm’s
rationale for becoming a
SPot Farm. “We wanted to
challenge current practice;
we have to embrace new
technology and use what’s
out there.”
The result has been a three-
year project with Scottish
Government funding to
conduct field scale trials
looking at a number of
factors, which in 2017
included cultivating at
shallower depths, using cover
crops to improve soil
structure over winter,
reducing nitrogen inputs and
modifying seed spacing to
maximise yields for specific
11
BENEFITS OF SPOT FARMS HIGHLIGHTED
INNORTH EAST
by Richard Crowhurst
AHDB’s Strategic FarmNetwork includes livestock, arable
and potato farms and includes more than 50Monitor
and Strategic farms around the country. These farms,
which are independent commercial enterprises, are a key
part of AHDB’s knowledge transfer and trials strategy.
Graham Bannister.
