Will it rain, will it rain enough, will it rain too much? The weather has a new normal at the moment with long dry spells then torrential rain. We had a very wet end to last year and now it has been very dry for a lot of us this year. Here we had two weeks of heavy rain in February but nothing else for the year and the ground is in a good condition for planting. Even the heaviest fields are still raw underneath but are workable. Will this continue with long dry summers and then long wet autumn's? Will it switch around! Who knows but it will be a challenge as always to get everything done at the right time, keep crops watered and fed and get them into store in as perfect a condition as possible.

It has been a very dry January and February with even the heaviest fields drying out now. Crops to the south of the UK are going in early, good or bad, time will tell. Fields are ploughed and ready to go. Will the weather break soon, will it forget to stop raining when it starts or will it be another beast from the east and bring weeks of cold and snow. Nobody knows. We will take it as it comes as usual and make the best job we can.

What do we look for in new seed varieties, is it all about looks and taste for the supermarkets? Is it about dual PCN resistance, some form of late blight resistance or a long dormancy so we can compete with the withdrawal of so many active ingredients now and in the coming years? As these products are taken off the shelf we have to decide what the future holds and how do we continue to grow potatoes without massive losses from potatoes that are either value packs or don't make it to the consumer. Do we continue to grow the same varieties and buy new, more expensive but less efficient chemicals or do we use our breeding programs to combat these issues. Buyers want growers to grow a select few varieties cheaply, using less chemicals in the production and storage and the ability to store for longer but still look like they are freshly dug. There will continue to be a market for the likes of Maris Piper and King Edward as long as market forces require and they are able to be grown viably but around that is where the change will come from. What do think, where should the change come from, varietal or chemical, grower pressure or will the change come from the supermarkets or governments?

Now that the vote for change has taken place within the farming and supplier communities, where do we go next. Where do we get our information, where do we get our knowledge, who will do our advertising? Ministers still have to decide on the future of the AHDB although it has been made clear that growers are not happy with what they got for their money and want something to change. What is that change? Who will provide this, how will it be funded? Will it be self financed through growers paying for what they use? There are many ways to gain and give knowledge without having to pay a levy. Suppliers and supermarkets can run advertisements, use social media etc to promote potatoes and give out recipes. What do you think is the best way forward for growers and suppliers?

With the UK leaving the EU, withdrawing from the single market and the Government not willing to accept alignment with the EU for any commodity, they left to make their own rules, the sale of seed potatoes to Europe and Northern Ireland is no longer allowed. There are so many ways this could go and ways people want it to go. For now, and the foreseeable future this will be the case. It is too late for this year’s planting and may take several years to fix as our customers in the EU will have to buy this year’s input seed from elsewhere and may sign two / three year contracts or longer. Some may say that we should exclude seed and ware coming into the UK from the EU and be self-sufficient, the problem being that industry needs ware / processing potatoes coming in through out the year and English growers use a lot of EU seed each year. Scotland does not allow the import of seed so a separation of Scottish seed from other members of the UK does not work as the deal would need to be reciprocal. DEFRA and the Government do not want to sign up to alignment with Europe so stale mate continues and they don’t want to stop imports for many growers and many industries to help out a handful of growers and merchants selling seed to the EU. With planting underway for some and Scotland’s seed growers a matter of weeks away from starting, decisions will need to be made about varieties that would normally be grown for customers in the EU. It may be a case of growing enough to keep varieties going for a year to see if a trade deal can be established for the year 2022 or a bigger tweak to move away from your plans and grow varieties that are not grown for the EU.

How often do you go around all your potato stores and use your best equipment to check the conditions, your eyes and nose?