Potato Review

Of course, these days, British Potato covers crop utilisation as well as production, and business as well as agronomy. Together with much more besides. However, 2021 is also seeing a nod to the show’s post-war origins when all eyes were on mechanisation. In the years following WW2, feeding the nation remained high among Government priorities and the focus was on efficiency and yield. Inevitably this meant promoting mechanisation. Tens of thousands grew potatoes and average acreages were modest. So, getting growers together to see mechanical advances was the order of the day and harvesting demonstrations were born. These grew ever larger and their scope widened not just to extracting and handling crop at pace, but also maximising quality – alongside rising buyers’ specifications and consumer expectations. Government proactivity eventually dwindled, as did grower numbers, while acreages shot up so that more demonstrations occurred on individual farms. The potato industry also became ever more vertically integrated, with shows needing to mirror this with a widened focus. So, while the team that took on BP events continued with live harvesting in 2001 and 2003, when the new look show moved to Harrogate for 2005 demo harvesting ceased. The event has gone from strength to strength and large numbers now also attend for business updates and post farm-related exhibits. Nevertheless, crop production remains a core theme and machinery exhibits are always popular. So, organisers are delighted that four international manufacturers plan to bring giant self-propelled units to the 2021 show – the most since staging at Newark eighteen years ago. Numbers of other machinery exhibits, like self-propelled sprayers are also up, as are wider agronomy-related exhibits. Major agrochemical businesses also have important launches planned. So all in all, growers and agronomists can be confident there’s a huge amount to see and it will be time very well spent. The giants roll in! Ploeger arriving onsite in 2017. The company is back to bringing a unit for display this year. The Grimme team showcasing developments in the 1970s. They’ll have a wide range of today’s advances on display across three stand areas at BP2021. DeWulf’s harvester at BP2019 – machinery always attracts close inspection. British Potato event stalwarts, Standen, have long been exhibiting machinery at the shows – as here in 2017. This year, they’ll also be bringing AVRs Puma 4.0, a 4-row self-propelled unit. 9