Escocia: Potato yield lower, but harvest looks good
The Scottish potato harvest is now more than half way through and has been progressing well in the recent fine weather.
However, crop yields this year look to be lower than average, mainly as a result of spring planting being delayed by about a fortnight, and the summer not being "growthy" enough to make up for that setback.
Both in Scotland and England, MET Office data shows that weather in June and July has been relatively dull and wet, but by no means the most extreme year. Scotland has had the fourth-wettest and fifth-dullest conditions in those two months since the year 2000.
Looking at the data a pattern of minimum sunshine levels required to maintain good yield potential seem to emerge.
For England, the two years of especially poor yields (2007 and 2012) correlate with years with fewer than 350 hours of sunshine in June and July.
For Scotland, only 2012 was an especially poor yielding year (with 210 hours of sunshine) - the threshold appears closer to 250 hours.
This year’s figure of 253 hours of sunshine in Scotland is just above the threshold, although 2007 and 2015 had similar sunshine levels in Scotland but above-average yields in both cases.
Fortunately, while yields are slightly lower, the quality of the crop is relatively good because rain came at the right time in those critical months of June and July to avoid common scab issues.
Inclement weather in many of the main European potato growing countries has depressed yields and is delaying harvesting, leading to predictions of rising prices.
The area planted may have increased in the main growing countries, but harvest losses may do more than wipe out the increases.
For instance, in Belgium growers are struggling to lift potatoes as the late summer drought turns into an autumn one. There has been some rain in the north and west of the country recently, but still not enough to really loosen soil and allow smooth harvest conditions. In the south of the country where a sizeable area of potatoes are grown there was only 5mm of rain at the end of September which did little but dampen the dust. It’s much the same in the Netherlands, Germany and France. Only Poland looks set for a bumper harvest that is on target to see yields rise by more than 30 per cent. Unfortunately Poland cannot solve the western supply problems because of unsuitable varieties and phytosanitary problems.
Click here to read more at www.heraldscotland.com.
Fuente: http://www.freshplaza.com/article/164731/Scotland-Potato-yield-lower,-but-harvest-looks-good
