Coastal farmer upbeat as potato harvest gets under way

But the Suffolk coast farmer, based at Erwarton, has had his problems with crop disease - and putting this right is expensive because inflation has affected the cost of chemicals.

He grows a mixture of wheat barley, sugar beet and oilseed rape and lets land to grow onions - but his key crop is potatoes.

Geoff Mayhew in his potato fields as they are irrigated (Image: Archant)

He counts himself lucky, as the crops on his mixed arable farm have enjoyed an unusually benign spring.

"Here on the Peninsula, we actually won the battle for showers of rain in May, with 73 mm recorded in May. This alone has given all our crops an excellent springboard to power them on," he says.

He planted 220ha of Skyfall winter wheat. Disease pressure on the crop has been high and costly to control as prices rocket.

The welcome rains have benefited the later sown cereal crops which were drilled after his late harvested sugar beet last year - and he sees this as a bonus in his overall cropping plan.

His 200ha of Maris Otter malting barley is also looking healthy - and he expects it will achieve the exacting specifications demanded by discerning maltsters.

He's "fairly confident" he'll manage average - or just above average - yields on his cereal crops.

And this year's 140ha of sugar beet crop - planted in what was initially a very dry seedbed is now looking "very well indeed" in spite of the sharp showers which followed.

"I have committed to growing a genetically engineered variety of sugar beet, which is bred to be tolerant to a particular herbicide group, called SulphunylUreas," he explains.

"This not only allows us to control weedy beet infestations from previous years, but also saves at least two passes through the crop against a conventional variety."

The benefit of this is a significant fuel saving - which also means his carbon emissions are reduced.

New potatoes straight from the field at Geoff Mayhew's farm (Image: Archant)

Geoff Mayhew's dogs enjoying the sun in his potato fields (Image: Archant)

Geoff Mayhew in his potato fields with his dog (Image: Archant)

But by far his biggest financial investment - and riskiest - is his 115ha of potatoes, which he grows predominantly for the packing sector.

"A blend of varieties, both salads and maincrops , are contracted to Asda through their buying arm, IPL," he explains.

"With the aid of on farm storage, we are able to supply Asda for 10 months of the year."

His biggest challenge with this crop is rejection because of the rise in soil-borne pests following the loss of some insecticides three years ago.

"There has been very little engagement from the retail sector of the impacts this has caused, and intolerance to variability is increasing rather than decreasing," he says.

"If we are to produce to ever higher environmental standards in the future - to which I am very committed - the customer must be re educated not to be so fixated with the elitism of visual perfection in their vegetables, but to concentrate on flavour and environmental consequences of their choices."

Happily for him the potato crop is looking "very healthy" as well as hitting its yield targets.

His team of five are working tirelessly on a seven day a week rota system to keep the irrigators moving to the potatoes can reach their full potential, he says.

"Without them, our crops would not survive," he adds.