The East Midlands Horticulture & Potatoes Board met this week (25 June 2018) to discuss the issues that matter most to this sectors’ farmer and growers. Board Chairman Alex Godfrey hosted the meeting at his family’s farm in Brigg, North Lincolnshire.
Board members had the opportunity to visit Somerby Top farm, AHDB’s newest Strategic Potato (SPot) Farm. The farm grows over 400 ha of main-crop potatoes for the packing market each year, in a rotation which includes peas, sugar beet, wheat, oilseed rape and linseed.
The farm includes two soil types, a sandy loam on the Lincolnshire Wolds and silts on the Isle of Axholme. The programme will deliver a residual and contact herbicides trial, look at potato nutrition and its effect on marketable yield demonstration, the sources of and timings of applications of P & K on a processing variety, demonstration and a demonstration of whether or not to plant headlands.
From left to right: Anthony Hopkins, Tim Casey, Mark Leggott, Sue Lamb, Mark Nundy, Alex Godfrey and Louise Wright.
The fruits, vegetables, plants and flowers British growers produce underpin the health and well-being of the nation, and the businesses support the rural economy. This board helps to shape and deliver NFU policy and activity on a regional and national level, with the ultimate aim of ensuring growers’ businesses can continue to thrive.
On the menu for discussion:
- National Horticulture & Potatoes Board Elections
- NFU’s response to Defra’s Health & Harmony Report
- NFU’s recently launched Good for Growers Pledge
- The NFU’s 10 Point Plan on Labour
- The apprenticeship levy
- Crop protection products
- Plant health fees
- The Food Foundation and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s new veg advertising campaign
- LSA Charitable Trust Horticultural Industry Fellowship
- Defra’s Labour data collection exercise
- AHDB’s Potato Strategy
- Future member engagement
For the full minutes of the meeting click here.
The NFU’s county adviser in Holland (Lincs), Danny O’Shea, said: “I’d like to thank Alex for hosting the meeting at his place. It was really interesting to learn more about AHDB’s Strategic Potato (SPot) Farms, which aim to up-scale research and demonstrate the on-farm implementation of science from their annual investment in R&D.
“I look forward to seeing how the farm and its trials progress over the next few months.”
You can keep up-to-date on what the NFU is doing for its members around the county by following our man on the ground Danny O’Shea (County Adviser for Holland, Lincs) on Twitter - @NFUHolland.