Potato Harvest 2012 - Mixed Reports

We're seeing some wide variations in the potato harvests for 2012 - not surprising, given the extremely variable weather during the growing season so far.

While some Scottish growers have been able to lift their early crops ahead of schedule, others have lost large areas of their crops to flooding and waterlogged soil. Overall, the picture seems to suggest a lower than normal potato yield in 2012, although there is time for this picture to change, especially with second crop and later varieties.

This lower yield might itself mask a problem of oversupply, though, according to the Potato Council chairman Allan Stevenson. This oversupply obviously affects prices and profitability but that's not a problem this year:

"There is a structural oversupply in the UK industry - simply too many growers growing too many potatoes, leading to low prices and us all losing money," he said.

"We can't keep doing that. No one can make a living, and no one can invest. But this year it's looking like there won't be that oversupply, which is fantastic news."

For the industry as a whole that's probably true, although you might feel differently if you're one of those who lost a large part of your crop this year. I'll be interested to know how you've coped with the difficult conditions this spring and whether you've been able to recover from an early-season disaster. Please add your comments below.

Meanwhile, a reminder that Novanna Measurement Systems supplies testing and measurement equipment for all kinds of agriculture.


.  

Rural Broadband - Is Mobile a Better Solution?

One reason the government might be dragging its heels over rural broadband provision must surely be that so many people these days access the Internet via a mobile device. So could mobile technology be the future for domestic and business Internet, too?

With more smart phones now being bought than 'conventional' mobiles and Internet access via mobile devices passing 50 percent of the total usage, would rural broadband cabling ever be cost effective?

I ask this as a genuine question. Whereas I'm writing this blog post on a laptop, via a wireless connection to my BT Broadband service, you may just as easily be reading it on a mobile device with no physical connection to the Internet at all.

And if that's the shape of things to come, I could just as easily be writing this blog on an iPhone, iPad, Android or Microsoft Surface device in the very near future.

I happen to live in a town with reasonable broadband but my brother in law is just as likely to access the Internet on his Blackberry as he is on his very slow rural broadband connection. Part of the thinking behind Novanna is that farmers increasingly use similar devices when they're out and about.

Now that reaching the Novanna website from a smart phone is as easy as phoning a supplier - easier, since you can search for Novanna online - part of our thinking is that farmers will find it more convenient to buy directly from us than to arrange a purchase by phone, even when they're miles from the office or too busy to find a phone number, especially once they have an account with us.

A smart phone costs less than a laptop, Mac or PC, even if 'line charges' are higher at the moment. Tablets and hybrid devices like the new one from Microsoft could just as easily work in an office, and the Microsoft Surface might even be a game-changer. 

There's a big debate going on about rural broadband, fibre optic cabling and so on, but the real issue is Internet access and there's more than one way to skin a cat.

Am I missing something here? Please feel free to agree or disagree. 

(BTW, we're also happy to send you a brochure by good old fashioned snail mail!)

Releasing Available Phosphorous

Phosphorous (P) is an important element for growing plants and is regularly added to soil to improve growth and yields. However, simply adding phosphorous won't help your yields if it just gets locked into the soil. Over 75% of added phosphorous can easily stay trapped in the soil, unavailable to growing plants.

Lack of available phosphorous can affect yields even if the problem occurs early in the growing season.

We've already written about the importance of soil pH in making nutrients available but it's been shown that insufficient zinc (Zn) has an effect too, specifically with the release of phosphorous.

This is why some phosphorous-based fertilisers also include zinc and why added zinc can make the difference between an effective phosphorous treatment and a wasted one.

There are two ways to find out if adding zinc will help your soil and your crop yields - trial and error or accurate soil testing in advance. Trial and error can be an expensive business with an unknown outcome, while the cost of soil test equipment can easily be covered by one successful harvest.

Soil Testing and Analysis: What is a pH Meter?

Soil Testing and Analysis: What is a pH Meter?: A frequently asked question is: "What is a pH meter?" Soil acidity (and acidity of any substance) is expressed as 'pH' and so a 'pH meter'...

Soil Fertility and Soil pH

Soil fertility is dependent on several factors, only one of which is the level of nutrients in the soil. What matters to plants is the level of available nutrients, which can be only a small percentage of the actual nutrients in the soil.

The main reason why nutrients may not be taken up by plant roots is the acidity or pH. Closely connected also are soil conductivity and activity, which are also ways of testing the amounts of positive hydrogen ions in the soil.

This means there are several ways you can test your soil's fertility and assess whether an 'unfertile' soil is actually depleted in nutrients or (more often) is simply unable to release those nutrients into the plant roots.

Simply correcting the pH of your soil might easily release all the nutrients needed by your growing plants, but only accurate testing or a longer period of trial and error will tell you. Testing in advance is usually better than finding out later, when your crop yields are lower than hoped and serious money has possibly been wasted on fertilisers your soil didn't need.

Naturally, all the soil test equipment you need is available from the Novanna website!