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Potatoworld Magazine
‘Avebe is making the most of market opportunities. This is necessary to increase its earning capacity’, says Chairman of the Board Bert Jansen. ‘It is a challenge for growers to make their cultivation as efficient as possible.’ The Starch Potato Days that were held in Valthermond on 1 and 2 September had to show how.
In order to continue to grow starch potatoes, growers will have to aim for yields of 100 tons per hectare. This is the challenge which Ton van Scheppingen presented his audience. They thought it a bit of a joke, but the director of PPO (Applied Research, Plant & Environment) was serious. He made this challenging statement at the opening of the Starch Potato Days, organised by Avebe and PPO at the PPO location ‘t Kompas. ‘In recent years, the starch potato sector has focused on cost reduction but should aim now for optimisation. Dare to think of higher yields. Make it a contest’, Van Scheppingen continued with passion. The PPO director also had a message for Henk Bleker, State Secretary of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation. He asked Bleker to give consideration to the cultivation of starch potatoes when discussing the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). ‘Potato starch can play an important role in sustainability and a greener environment. But the sector still needs another five to ten years to become competitive with other raw materials. It is particularly important for this sector to look at maintaining perspective.’
Bleker, however, was quite optimistic about the opportunities of the sector. ‘After all, it is not the first time that the sector’s perspectives look bad’, he said in his speech. The State Secretary is striving first and foremost to keep the Dutch share of the agricultural budget as substantial as possible. ‘Our share is now 40 to 44 billion. We may have to lose a little and we must fight to keep the losses to a minimum.’ According to Bleker, leaked proposals suggest that the Dutch portion of the agricultural budget has been cut too drastically. ‘We are still talking about proposals and perhaps they are just administrative ideas, but it is going to be hard for the West European countries to keep their share unaffected’. The second battle is the preservation of a reasonable hectare allowance, according to Bleker, with the possibility of additional allowances for matters such as sustainability, biodiversity and energy production. ‘But how cuts are going to be divided over the various countries is not quite clear.’ It is at least positive, in Bleker’s view, that Prime minister Mark Rutte and the Minister of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, Maxime Verhagen, want to keep the agricultural budget unchanged at the 2013-2014 level. ‘That is already a very important milestone.’
For the starch potato growers, abandoning the linked allowances – which are considerable – will have enormous consequences.’We must be realistic; for starch potato growers the allowances will be cut’, says Bleker.
He is no advocate of a gradual phasing out until 2020, the socalled soft landing.’It sounds sympathetic, but I doubt whether that is the right thing to do.
Gradual phasing out gives a group of growers the opportunity to hold out. ‘Bleker prefers to get it over and done with and use the money for the development of innovation, entrepreneurship and alternatives for the region. ‘Serious situations require serious measures. It is not a happy message, but an honest one.’ To maintain perspective, the sector and the region can expect support from the government, according to Bleker. ‘The government has set high stakes on economic innovation. 1.2 billion euros have been made available for innovative projects and investments for nine top sectors, two of which in the agri-sector. There will also be funds from the private sector. If the knowledge institutes also start aiming at these top sectors, it must be possible to help some projects in the short term. That will really create opportunities, also for the starch sector’, a confident Bleker said.
At any rate, Avebe is investing heavily, says Bert Jansen, director of Avebe and Chairman of the Board of the cooperative. The plan is to invest 45 million in the current financial year, which started on 1 August. ‘That is substantial. But we have not been investing sufficiently in the past two years and we have just closed a good financial year.’ Avebe also invests in innovations in food manufacturing and in projects aimed at saving energy. ‘These are major investments, but if we can cut the costs of energy, for example, it will be worth it’, says Jansen. He is also hopeful about the investments in functional food. ‘Functional food sounds quite simple, but it is one of big gest challenges in the world to produce food that tastes good and contains fewer calories.
The Chairman of the Board of Avebe sees opportunities for the starch industry to claim public money for the innovative projects and investments Bleker was talking about. ‘The ministry has asked us to propose ideas and plans. This is possible by uncoupling that money from Avebe operations management.’ Actually, there is nothing new under the sun, says Jansen. ‘Our growers have been investing in innovation via Avebe for years. Avebe belongs to the farmers. Through its daughter company, Averis, Avebe invests money on behalf of the farmers in variety development, for example, and in entrepreneurship by searching for better yields at lower costs. We can double the amount of green gas in the Netherlands by processing Avebe’s potato pulp. 100 tons per hectare is still far away. According to the regulations of the Commodity Board for Arable Farming (HPA), growers are currently allowed to contract a maximum of 60 tons of potatoes per hectare,’ according to Jansen. •
Optimum Early blight control pays, says Bert Westhoff of the crop protection chemica! manufacturer BASF. ‘At Aveka, Early blight easily costs 100 euros per hectare net, because the crop yields fewer kilos. The crop dies off two weeks earlier and that means 10 to 20 grams less underwater weight. All in all, it costs 5 to 10 percent payout weight.’
At the demonstration field, he shows us a trial plot with Seresta, Aveka and Festien, a part of which was not Early blight controlled. The differences were the greatest in the Aveka crop. In the picture, Westhoff is seen just about on the dividing line of untreated (in front) and treated (behind) crops. ‘An early variety shows Early blight first, especially if it is also stressed as a result of tight nitrogen fertilisation, for example. Aveka therefore shows the greatest differences. Seresta follows a week later; Festien also shows differences, but then three to four weeks later.’ Early blight can be controlled by Signum and Amistar. If you want to be certain, the best thing for Phytophthora control is chemicals that contain Mancozeb, says Westhoff. The demonstration fields confirmed this. ‘Mancozeb doesn’t do much for Early blight, but it is enough. At any rate, it appears to be sufficient until the time that the real Early blight remedy (Signum) is needed,’ says Westhoff. It is important that you recognise the spots. This picture shows leaves from a field that is not treated for Early blight. The leaves show a motley of spots. The larger spots, with the characteristic, distinguishable rings, are definitely caused by Early blight. The smaller spots are partly due to Early blight, and partly to other causes such as virus infections.
Harmannus Begeman is a crop farmer in Nieuwe Pekela. He cultivates 65 hectares of starch potatoes, which includes his own seed potatoes. He doesn’t think the 100 tons per hectare mentioned by PPO director Ton van Scheppingen is realistic. ‘I assume that he’s talking about payout weight. That means a yield of 70 tons with an underwater weight of 550 grams’, Begeman calculates quickly. ‘I’m happy if I regularly raise 60 to 65 tons per payout weight per hectare. I won’t get much more on my old sandy peat soil and with the current varieties. And the weather must be good as well, I get my best yields in relatively wet years. I may be able to get more out of it if I watch the health of my crops even more closely and if I improve my seed potato crop even more. There may be a few other methods to improve my balance. I prefer a slightly lower yield and better payment.’
Five machines demonstrated their potential during the lifting demonstration, all two-row bunker harvesters with hoppers and a capacity that suited the number of acres of the present starch potato farms. ‘Seven or eight years ago, quite different machines were being shown at lifting demonstrations’, says Bert Huizinga of DLV Plant. The capacity of these bunker harvesters is definitely larger.’ The potatoes of the Seresta variety were harvested with a WKM 8500, a De Wulf RQ2060, a Grimme SV260 and an AVR Spirit 6200. The latter two machines are new. New also was the Grimme SG5060/Zibo FR02 combination (photo), a front lifter. The front lifter harvests two rows and puts them crossways between the two adjacent ridges. The bunker harvester lifts those two ridges and simultaneously picks up the harvest of the front lifter. This bunker lifter is especially equipped with two half-diabolo rolls and lifting shares over the entire width of two potato ridges. ‘The sifting capacity of the Grimme is sufficient to expand the lifting capacity of the front lifter’, says Richard Korver of DLV Plant.
‘Without the front lifter, the four bunker lifters have a speed of approx. 6.5 km/hr; the front lifter combination has a speed of approx. 5 km/hr. This means that the combination has quite a lot more lifting capacity with a relatively low investment. A self-propelled four-row machine is much more expensive. An advantage of this combination is that you can also use the tractor outside the lifting season.’ The demonstration made it clear that it is important to reduce the speed to be able to process the large quantities of soil and foliage without the loss of potatoes. Despite the wet weather conditions before the lifting demonstration started, the Serestas were delivered relatively clean.
Variety improvement is an important instrument to improve one’s yields, says Lieuwe de Jong of Averis. ‘The rise in yield for starch varieties is out of line when compared to the rise for consumption varieties; one of the reasons being the focus on resistance. Another important reason is the narrow crop rotation. But there will be new varieties, such as the Axion, which will yield 10 percent more than the existing starch varieties.’
The Yara N sensor has been developed to measure the crop’s need for fertiliser and adjust the application to those calculations. This should lead to more efficient applications ..
This spray boom has GreenSeekers. These GreenSeekers can measure the amount of green leaf and adjust the quantity of the application of fertiliser. ‘Trialling showed that this system saves 40 to 50 percent of haulm killer’, says Minne Batenburg of Agrometius. The GreenSeeker can also be used for the application of nitrogen, for example.
Jarke Kruize of Semagri discusses the starch varieties with two German starch potato growers. Semagri bought the varieties from the Sloots breeding company. ‘100 tons per hectare, starch potato varieties can’t do that yet. But the grower can improve his yield by using good and healthy seed from the best varieties’, says Kruize.
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