inform - Grimme UK

Welcome
Introduction
UK growers continue to face
the challenge of operating
profitably in an era of
turbulent pricing and pressure
on margins.
However, as you can read
below, the industry is
responding with more
professional management,
increased use of innovative new machinery and
the adoption of significant advances in
technology.
Our cover story shows how Grimme continues to
innovate in the design of new harvesting
machinery with important advances in planting
and bed-forming equipment available too.
The news pages will bring you up to date about
all kinds of things, including Agritechnica, the
Potato Event and a rising tide of interest in the
self propelled Maxtron beet harvester. Rob
Clayton of BPC addresses the issue of Soil
Management Reviews, posing the question
“How good are your soils?”
The centrefold looks at the detailed approach
Grimme specialists take to machine appraisal and
the economic value of the comprehensive preseason
overhaul that follows. The focus is on destoners
with comparisons of the web machines
favoured in Scotland and the star machines found
south of the border.
At
British Potato 2005 leading researchers
from Britain and the US provided pointers about
how better management can help reduce a
problem that costs British growers an estimated
£26 million per year.
“Drop a potato on to a hard surface from a
height higher than its bruise threshold and the
chances are it will bruise and compromise the
quality of your crop,” says Gary Hyde Professor
of Biological Systems Engineering at
Washington State University. “But the extent of
this damage depends on a range of factors.
Prof Hyde’s research has found it is not only the
height the potato drops from that determines
whether it will bruise. Variety, water content,
temperature and whether it falls on its end or
its side all have an influence.
“There is an optimal hydration for potatoes, for
example – too much or too little water content
will increase the incidence of
bruising,” notes Prof Hyde
(pictured left).
This has significant
practical implications for
British growers,
according to Mark
Stalham, from
Cambridge
University
Farms. “It’s
one thing
An interesting story follows that illustrates the
value of Grimme Multi-Sep technology on grading
lines. Our Tech-Talk section looks at planters, in
particular some new Grimme machines that will
extend your productivity options with a footnote
on funding from Finance from Grimme.
The back page looks at making the decision
between Self Propelled or trailed harvesters with a
theme that encourages you to think cost not price
in making decisions about which types of machine
are best for your business.
Above all on behalf of the team at Grimme UK
and our dealers I would like to wish you a
successful and prosperous New Year.
Yours sincerely,
Michael Alsop
Managing Director – Grimme UK Ltd.
Congratulations to the
winners of the Drivers
Kits from the last issue!
S.Markillie & Son Ltd,
Cambridgeshire and
Mr J Stockdale, Scarborough
Cross-Atlantic Collaboration Brings Bruising Bonus
getting the tuber to an optimal hydration. But
keeping it there right through to harvest, and
working out when would be the best point to
irrigate, for example, are both harder to
manage.”
His research, funded by the BPC, has looked at
the water status of tubers at various stages
through the season, and what factors affect
this. “The point at which a crop starts to
senesce crucially affects water uptake, for
example. Irrigating at desiccation can take a lot
more water than a single irrigation to achieve a
target tuber hydration.”
Dr Stalham aims to draw the research together
into a management decision system that
growers can use to determine quickly and easily
how likely their crop is to bruise.
Innovations in harvesting technology are also
helping growers reduce bruising, according to
Grimme’s Mike Alsop. “This cross-industry
involvement which highlights a range of
practical solutions is now bringing growers real
benefits in terms of more output and less
damage.
Rounding off the year, Grimme UK presented
its view of new & future developments in potato
machinery in a series workshops within the
Cambridge University Potato Growers Research
Association (CUPGRA) 16th Annual Conference,
- more of this in our next issue.