Andrew Wilson at Brickyard Farm near Slingsby, North Yorkshire, has just made a start on his 60ha of potatoes for McCain.

“In digs, yields look pleasing, although quality is a little variable in places, but nothing I’m majorly concerned about,” says Andrew.

“I can foresee that potato movement might be later than normal which is a concern.”

See also: Early sugar beet yields promising for Cambridgeshire grower

Lifting conditions are OK so far, he says. “We had 10mm of rain on Monday (2 October). It’s a bit damp but we’re travelling OK at the moment; if we have a week of rain we might be in trouble.”

Harvest started a week later than usual. “We couldn’t desiccate quite as early as we would have liked, partly because of the wet weather at the end of September, and we knew if we started too early we would have to stop anyway,” he says.

On yields, he is optimistic he will meet contracts.

“Some look quite promising and some look like they will scrape in, so it will probably average out alright.

“It will be interesting to see how the indexation comes out this winter, but it’s too early to make any judgements yet.”

East

In the East, conditions have been good for Mike Neaverson at Spendlas Farm, near Long Sutton in Lincolnshire.

Size is good and there has been adequate moisture, which has meant minimal bruising.

“We’re getting on really well at the moment and the forecast is good,” he says.

He has lifted 28ha of his 50ha of Melody, which is all for chipping. “Quality is good and yields are very average,” says Mike.

In Norfolk, Tim Papworth has finished his 83ha of potatoes and is now contract lifting for his neighbour. “It hasn’t been a massive yield, but the quality is good,” he says.

“We had a really dry June and July, which are the two growing months, so the crop didn’t like that, particularly the salad potatoes.

They went in the ground in April and early May; we had a wet spring so some of the conditions weren’t excellent, which might have knocked yield a little bit.

“It’s all about solar radiation as well as water – so for us it’s been an average season rather than a barn-busting one.”

In terms of bruising, he takes all the precautions he can.

“We are fortunate to have irrigation, so we irrigate the crops before we lift them to soften the soil, make it more pliable and softer for the potatoes to go up the harvester and prevent bruising.

“We’re not wasting water, we’re actually being more efficient because we’re not wasting potatoes.”

As for size, Tim is looking for smaller potatoes for salads, so the fact that some of the crop is on the smaller side doesn’t faze him.

“We don’t want anything too big, none over 45mm, otherwise they won’t fit the specification,” he says.

“On the chipping potatoes, we did some of those in early August for McCain, and I wouldn’t say the size was massive, but well in spec of the contract.”

Wales

Former NFU president Meurig Raymond, of Trenewydd Fawr near Haverfordwest, grows one-third salad and two-thirds maincrop potatoes, including Maris Piper and Mozart.

He is halfway through harvest so far, and it’s been disappointing.

“Last year was perfect; 2023 has been the opposite,” he explains. 

The wet March led to a late planting on 20 April.

This was followed by a dry spell which stretched from late April through to July. As a result, all his crops have suffered, despite investing heavily in irrigation.

The spraying system was turned on 24/7 for a period of six weeks. This may have saved the quality, but the yield still suffered, coming in 10% below average, says Meurig.

The combination of heavy financial investment with inadequate yields is a double whammy.

South West

Much further south, Chris Dustow at Colwith Farm near Liskeard is just over halfway through his 145ha of potatoes, and conditions have been challenging.

“At one point it was quite dry, early in the season, and now it has gone the other way – we keep getting annoying showers. It never seems to really dry up,” says Chris.

Yields are average overall. “We’ve seen some pretty decent stuff, and some poor stuff too, so it seems to be different depending on which parish we’re in.

“The spring was so variable, so the potatoes that were planted in April, which would normally be our best, are actually our worst – I think they just caught the dry at the wrong time. I’m hoping our May-planted crops will perform better, but we’re only just getting into them.

“I have seen quite a lot of late blight getting into the crops, which is a bit of a fear – so I think it might be a difficult storage season. I’m definitely nervous – we have put in lots of extra fans for airflow.”

And harvest has been later for Chris, too. “The problem is we just haven’t been able to get the skin set.

“We would normally start lifting on 1 September, which we did, but it has been stop-start ever since, where the weather hasn’t played ball. So I think we’ll end up finishing slightly later than normal.”

Quality has also been average. “The April-planted crop has been poor, with a lot of misshapen potatoes and a little bit of disease. What we’re seeing now is quite a bit of oversize in the crisping varieties,” he notes.

“This is because, to try and get the dry matter above 21.5%, we have let the crops grow on because of the wet summer.

“But we have an 85mm limit and some of these will be over, unfortunately. Some of them have grown too fast, and the tubers are hollow, so it’s really strange.”

Chris grows potatoes for a variety of customers.

“Our largest customer is for crisping, and then we do a lot for Cornish pasties, bakeries, direct sales to fish and chip shops, farm shops, and then my brother has a distillery,” he says.

“So we have diversified within the same sector to minimise the risk of one customer not taking as much as we would want. We can divert the crops. It minimises our waste.”

Compared with last year, it has been a very different season, says Chris.

“It has been chalk and cheese; last year was stupendously dry, and this year has been horrendously wet in the height of the spraying season – the disease management has been the most challenging.

“Just getting through the crop with the sprayer each week and getting a good application has been really difficult.”

Also in Cornwall, Jeremy Oatey of Agricola Growers, who farms at West Anthony Farm, says his potato harvest is going slowly.

He has 180ha sown, but planting was delayed due to wet weather in March and April. This was followed by a dry spell in June and early July, which has affected yields.

Lifting began with the early variety Lady Rosetta in July. Jeremy observed some blight in the tops in late August to early September.

The maincrop harvest is making slow progress as he waits for the tops to die off, about two weeks behind last year.

He expects yields to average around 45t/ha; below normal but not as bad as previously feared.

“The dry matter is where it needs to be, and the quality is OK,” he says.