Spread-a-Bale is working in collaboration with Groundswell to document the benefits of covering newly planted potato tubers with straw.
Immediately after planting, straw was spread over the tubers with a Spread-a-Bale Maxi 2VR HD XL, specifically adapted with a 1.8m wide rear hood with a trailing 500ml long rubber flap to level off the straw.
Attached to the rear of a JCB Fastrac with 300cm wide tyres to minimise tuber disruption and soil compaction, the 0.36ha plot achieved sufficient coverage with 14t of wheat straw.
“The seven-year industrywide initiative is designed to determine the response to the potato crop introduced to various rotations without irrigation, herbicides and fungicides and minimal, if any, soil movement,” explains project manager, Groundswell’s Richard Harding.
“Spreading a uniform cover of straw over the newly planted tubers is vital to protect them from moisture loss, negate the need for irrigation even in a dry year, eliminate herbicide requirements and in the longer term, cost effectively improve the soil organic matter. We’ve found Spread-a-Bale is a machine which has been able to efficiently mechanise the job.
In the project’s first year in 2024 potatoes were placed directly onto the soil surface. This season tubers went into previously deep loosened soil with a conventional three-row belt planter. The trial’s major focus this season is to mechanically harvest the crop using existing harvesters.
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