The maincrop potato harvest in the UK and Ireland is struggling towards an end after storms and continued wet weather created issues for late crops.
Videos on social media over the weekend showed harvesters in Lincolnshire struggling to travel across the soil, while Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) National Potato Committee chair Seán Ryan, has described the situation as “the worst in recent memory.”
Reports suggest the UK potato crop is expected be one of the smallest on record as floods, storms and continued wet weather have taken their toll. Sandy McGowan, managing director at Tayside-based potato breeder Cygnet Pep, based in Tayside, told Farmers Guardian, “Our growers had lifted about 85 per cent of their seed potatoes before Storm Babet arrived and harvesting has been very difficult since then. It was the second storm to hit, after Storm Agnes arrived at the end of September. Before then, only 60 per cent of the crop had been lifted, so we had recovered quite well before Babet.”
Joanne Weir from processor Wilson’s Country in Northern Ireland commented, “We do expect crop losses as many growers, in particular in central and Eastern areas have experienced over 200mm of rain in the past 10 days. The weather of the next few weeks will dictate how much we can lift – if the frost comes in November this will have a detrimental effect on the quality of the potatoes left in the ground as many are sitting exposed or close to the surface thanks to all the heavy rain washing away drills.
“Stored crops also have a higher than normal level of waste in particular growth cracks, greens and rots. As potatoes have been lying in saturated ground, rots will likely be an issue with these crops and impact stored quality.”