Precision Farming concepts for potato cultivation | 10.03.2010
More homogenous crop stands, a demand oriented nitrogen fertilisation, savings on herbicides and fungicides, a better use of machinery – all of these advantages can be realised in potato crops with precision farming solutions.
Even stands play an important role in potato production. A comprehensive uniform supply of basic nutrients for the plants is a precondition for the harvesting of homogenous batches of potatoes. Usually fields are very heterogeneous; differences that the farmer can counter with sub-area specific maintenance fertilisation.
The advantages of sensor-supported nitrogen fertilisation in oilseed rape and cereals have been proven many times. Since 2004 the YARA N-Sensor has been able to be used in a two application strategy in variable rate N fertilisation.
The sub-area specific ripening control as well as applications of fungicides can be carried out with sensor support.
The many working steps in potato cultivation necessitate, when possible, a repeatable centimetre precision in the field work. An autopilot with RTK precision (2-3 cm) lends itself specifically to potato cultivation. An extra equipment control prevents the machinery from drifting due to soil resistance or degree of slope.
...and what do the farmers say?
Sven Borchert, Landwirtschaftliche Betriebsgemeinschaft GbR, Groß Germersleben: „Basically I am convinced by the sensor supported fertilisation. We have been using the YARA N-Sensor on our farm for ten years and want to make the best use of the equipment. When the idea came from Agricon to use variable fertilisation on the potatoes we said to ourselves: OK, we’ll try it on part of the potato fields. We produce our potatoes exclusively for the chip and crisp production. Quality plays a major role here since the potatoes are valued according to size and amount. We can’t give a statistically valid research result but we had the impression that crops were more homogenous after being treated with the 2 application strategy with the YARA N-Sensor. In the second application (the first variable application), the sensor certainly worked very differentially.”
Jens Otto, Agrahand GmbH Sermuth, Großbothen: "As an agricultural service company we have to offer our clients further incentives, whether it is that we take more notice of the conditions on the field, or, if possible, achieve complimentary effects; saving outputs is one of these. We have been working with the introduction of the YARA N-Sensor in pest and disease management since 2004, only special applications have made it for use in practice. One of these seems to be the variable leaf and stem dessication in potatoes. In the last season we compared the standard desiccation with the sensor-supported one on about 22 ha of various varieties. The positive effect: instead of the planned 2.5 l/ha of Reglone, we only used 1.5 l/ha with the sensor. These are effects that can be seen and explained. We are going to work more intensively on the settings of the control intervals in 2010 as we can recognise a good potential for savings here.”
Bernd Kay, MFP Agrar GmbH, Blumenberg: "Logistics play a big role for me and that no machine has to wait for another. We farm 1500 hectares of potatoes and have two tractors equipped with autopilot and a mobile RTK station. We cultivate about 50 or 60 hectares of potatoes in spring. It is important that the bed widths are precisely kept to and that both tractors can plant independently of one another. This works well with GPS; I never thought that two tractors could be so well coordinated. The rest of our potato fields are farmed with 5 other tractors without GPS. The two tractors equipped with GPS make marks (with the marker arm) between the tramlines, each on a different field. The other tractors use these for orientation so that we have straight lines in all the fields with relatively little outlay and can optimise our logistics.”