SoilEssentials Ltd, a farming solutions company, based in Angus, Scotland, will be showcasing a new product for potato growers at the forthcoming BP2019 in November.

Called Tuberzone, the new option tracks and predicts crop yield and tuber size throughout the season helping growers to calculate the optimum time for desiccation, and thus maximizing the peak value of seed and salad crops.

“Tuberzone is a precision farming solution which can not only cut costs, optimize saleable yield and improve resource use efficiency, it is also a whole season process aimed at helping growers, merchants, processors, and retailers fulfill market requirements,” Jim Wilson, managing director at SoilEssentials explained. “Utilizing Tuberzone can greatly reduce the number of crop digs required, thus saving the grower time and money, allowing better crop management and ultimately making it easier to meet contract targets,” Wilson added.

Tuberzone utilizes GPS, drone and satellite imagery and other remote sensing tools, and – in addition to predicting crop yield and size distribution during the growing season – it also gives growers access to management data including spatial soil and water models, crop canopy measurements and more.

Development of Tuberzone in the field began three years ago when SoilEssentials started the project, supported by InnovateUK and in collaboration with McCain and Grimme. 2018 saw Tuberzone independently verified and validated and therefore ready to provide as a product to commercial potato growers. Subsequently, in 2019, SoilEssentials have partnered with Grampian Growers, a farmer-owned co-operative based on the East Coast of Scotland, and SAC Consulting in a project to further demonstrate the potential benefits of Tuberzone potato technology.

Further ongoing developments of Tuberzone are extending its functionality into starch, packing and processing crops.