'A great year for potatoes' says Northern Ireland's leading spud grower
Wilson’s Country in Craigavon reveals a combination of cold weather and strong domestic demand has conspired to push up potato acreage across the province this year
A combination of cold weather and strong domestic demand has conspired to push up potato acreage across Northern Ireland this year
According to Craigavon potato brand Wilson’s Country, potato acreage across the island of Ireland in 2024 is up year-on-year due to climatic and market factors.
Speaking as Northern Ireland’s 2024 main crop potato harvest officially got under way, Wilson’s Country agronomist Stuart Meredith, explained: “Despite the cold, late spring and consequently the slow emergence of the 2024 crop, it has been a great year for potatoes so far. Rainfall amounts have been moderate at the right times.
“To date early planted main crops have been yielding average or slightly above average tonnes per acre.
“Grower costs continue to increase. It has also been a tricky blight year. The potential of the disease to impact on crops has been consistently high.
“This has required potato growers to spray for blight on a weekly basis. In addition, it is only the most expensive chemistries that are delivering the required levels of blight control. And his, again, is adding significantly to the cost of growing potatoes.”
One of the most interesting trends emanating from the 2024 main crop potato season has been the range of crop responses generated by different fertilisers on crops.
Stuart continued: “It’s now evident that crops grown with chemical fertilisers are senescing much earlier than those grown with the use of organic manures.
“This may be due to the fact that residual nitrogen levels within soils started out lower this Spring due to the excessive rainfall last Winter and the slower releasing nitrogen from applied organic manures has been needed to carry the plant through the season.”
According to Stuart the acreage of potatoes grown across the island of Ireland in 2024 is up, year on year: “This is due to the fact that the late spring had deterred many growers from planting a cereal crop.
“The strength of the market earlier in the year also encouraged farmers to increase the area of potatoes they would normally grow.
“While the current spell of good weather is to be welcomed, it will do very little to bulk potato crops at this stage.”
The Wilson’s agronomist made these comments while visiting the Rathfriland farm of Alistair Moore.
Alistair added: “Yields have been good up to his point. Ground conditions for harvesting have been excellent.
“But we 2024 harvest has only started and a lot can still happen between now and the end of the season.”