Andrew Kerr
Andrew Kerr
Andrew Kerr farms 344ha
(850 acres) in partnership
with his parents and
brother at Wyldingtree
Farm, North Weald, Essex.
Cropping is potatoes,
including some on rented
ground, plus cereals,
herbage seed and
oilseed rape
IT is showtime! Well, not exactly, but it was a pleasure to attend the LAMMA show in mid-January after a seasons events were lost to foot-and-mouth.
We spent most of the day drooling at potato equipment – hardly surprising after two consecutive difficult growing seasons that have highlighted some improvements needed in our tackle. After all, we cant rely on the weather to behave can we?
However, it seems nobody has yet made a potato-grader that is foolproof, comfortable to work on all day and happy in mud, glorious mud. One small item that did grab my attention was a newly available and simple GPS guidance system that is easily transferred between tractors. Imagine it – no more wonky drilling, spray-misses or overlaps. Cultivations could be guaranteed dead straight too. Even I might win the local farms competition with one of these devices!
Needless to say, my local agent has convinced me we need a demonstration this spring. That gives credence to my neighbours argument that it is far cheaper to spend the winter pheasant shooting rather than at shows or in the workshop where the temptation to "trash the cash" can be too great to resist.
Other winter excursions have involved ATB training courses on, among other things, the dreaded LERAPs. I have also enrolled on an ADER-sponsored computer course costing only £40 for 12 hours tuition. My current understanding of computers is Neanderthal at best so surely this will bring a cost-effective improvement.
On the farm we have been grading King Edward potatoes for export to the Canaries and delivering bulk grass-seed to a local farm for pre-cleaning. There has been a pleasing, if slight, lift in cleaned seed prices since last year, reaching the heady heights of £18/50kg for Greengold and £22/50kg for the lower yielding Abergold. It is a sobering sign of the times that our first grass-seed crop, in 1996, made double that price but merchant retail prices have barely altered. Sounds familiar doesnt it? *
Andrew Kerr is moving last summers herbage seed harvest. Prices have improved but are still only half what they were in 1996, he says.