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Processors' demand for long uniform potatoes and plant breeding to suit market demands left H.S. White and Sons, questioning the suitability of their old cup planter.

Farming at Cantley Common, near Doncaster Chris White and his uncle David White explain why they opted for a new Standen SR200 on its launch.Ìý

Chris says: "As the seed potato has got longer and more irregular, we found ourselves standing on the planter to ensure seed held in the cups.

"We were running a Standen SP200 at the time, but its cup shape better suited a round potato," he adds.

David agrees and says: "We found we could be getting up to five per cent misses in a field, potentially leaving us planting 95 out of every 100 acres."

When every acre counts on the gross margin, the opportunity of a cup planter that handled varied seed seemed a sensible option.

Notably, there were a few teething problems with the newly-designed planter, with the business receiving only the second unit ever produced.Ìý

David says: "My dad always said do not be the first to get something new, otherwise you will get all the problems."

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Chris adds: "In fairness to Standen, they have stood by the machine and, as the modifications were made, they came and fitted them — we cannot fault them for that.

"Standen offers us a connection to a British manufacturer and we could visit the factory to see our machine being built, or pick up parts from the base in Ely," he adds.

The White family has been running the SR200 for two seasons now and see some notable improvements on their former planter.

Both David and Chris commented on how Standen planters of old lost soil out of the ridge with a break in the wings before the hood.Ìý

Chris says: "We could be light on soil in some areas of the ridge with the old planter.

Standen seems to have rectified this issue on the latest range, with continuous wings now guiding the soil to the forming hood.

Chris says: "The pressurised hood system, works well to gather and release soil along the length of the bed, giving plenty of soil in the ridge."

David says: "Planting speed has not changed much compared to the old planter, because we have to work at 6.5kph to get our Amistar dose rate right."

Planting is carried out with a Valtra N134, working on 72-inch wheel centres with the planter working at a 34-inch row width. The N134 is more than capable of handling the planters' maximum 60l/min hydraulic flow rate requirements.

David says: "The tractor handles the planter well, but with a 1,500kg hopper we do need to put weight on the front to keep the front end down.

"The front-mounted Grimme granular applicator helps with this, as the planter is certainly longer than the old set-up,"Ìý he adds.

The family hopes a move to a liquid fertiliser applicator in the future will help with more accurate application into the drill when planting and align the system with wider liquid fertiliser applications across other crops, as well as adding more ballast to the front of the tractor.

David says: "Operating the planter through the touch screen control box is pretty simple, I can set population count in area or row spacing.

"I normally opt for row spacing," he adds.

Accuracy has always been a key consideration for the family, with a cup planter system offering more accurate seed placement compared to a belt planter, and reduced risk of seed roll in the furrow.

Chris says: "We are always out measuring seed placement in the drill, whether that is for depth or spacing. We cannot fault the Standen for consistency."

David says: " We grow two potato varieties on the farm, Nectar and Innovator for pre-pack and processing.

"Following last season's difficult harvest we are seeing supply issues with seed now.

"We would often plant seed sizes between 35-45mm and 45-55mm, but this year we are having to take seed at 55-60mm," he adds.

The larger seed will certainly offer a new challenge for the farm's planter, but David and Chris point out that the planter has always performed evenly with uneven seed, so remain confident in its performance for the season ahead.

Both David and Chris describe their planting operation as a traditional system, starting at the back end of the year by ploughing the following year's potato ground.

David says: "We are prominently on sandy loams with clay loams in heavier areas, and over-winter ploughing helps weather it down."

"Alongside ploughing, we tend to subsoil ridge up and de-stone.

"Heavier land will also get a pass with a bed former if needed," he adds.

During the planting operation, the family always has to plan ahead, planting speed is often only as good as the wider operation.Ìý

"Soil workability through the planter can vary a lot through the day, especially if we had dew on the drills from the night before," says Chris.

Ìý"We have started to plan our planting more by seed size, to reduce the need to change cup inserts on the planter.

The Standen machine has three insert options for the cups — blue, red and grey, which allow for seed sizes of up to 35mm, 35-60mm and 60mm and above respectively.

Chris says: "You always need to carry a few cup inserts, just in case you lose one, along with a screwdriver to pop them out of the holder on changeovers."

"With 30 cups to each row, it can take a bit of time to manually change the cup inserts for different seed.

"But the more we can do to block seed sizes together when planting the easier it is," he adds.

Looking to the future, the White family may look towards getting two sets of belts made up with the cup inserts ready to go for a quicker changeover between seed sizes.

The Standen planters cup system agitates the seed collected and carried in each cup, allowing time for any doubles that may be picked up to drop any excess back into the hopper along its length of travel.

Chris says: "I have spent a lot of time standing on the planter checking for doubles and misses, but if you set the machine up correctly for the seed, you have no issues."

"Working on our flat ground, we have no need for optional agitators on the collection chamber, that is more suited for hill work," he adds.

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Hydraulic depth control allows David the ability for on-the-move adjustments if needed.

"It took a while for me to get my head around the gauge visible from the cab, but now it is a simple adjustment," says David.

"We have a lot going on with both fungicide and granular application so I can be constantly filling up one thing or another.

"But I can comfortably manage one acre pre-hour (0.4ha) planting or 12 acres a day (4.8ha) based on a 12-hour shift," he adds. Ìý

The family added a couple of additions to the machine, including the Team Sprayers applicator which applies powered fungicide Rhino (flutolanil). This is alongside a second Team compact 120 applicator which delivers Amistar (azoxystrobin) around the share.

Chris says: "The planter offered plenty of mounting points for applications, without compromising accessibility around the planter."

The potato operation consists of three main staff, David, his brother John and nephew Chris, with seasonal workers when needed.

Situated 12 miles from processors E Park and Sons, the farm is well-positioned to deliver local produce with limited transport costs.Ìý

David says: "I am very proud of our lean system. All our harvest goes straight into boxes off the field and into our cold store."

"We do not grade at the farm with everything sorted at the processors, making the operation lean on labour.

"The processors seem to like it that way, reducing the risk of damage during double handling," he adds.

Chris says: "For harvest, we run a trailed Standen T2 harvester with a picking off table with two or three seasonal staff to clean up the crop."