Potato Harvesting

We grow about 10 acres of potatoes which is small in comparison to the big farmers. Today they finished harvesting them so there was a big cheer all round. The dry weather has been ideal for potato harvesting and they have been busy all week.

This is helped by an efficient harvester and careful preparation of the ground before planting to remove stones. It used to take 3 or 4 people on board to remove mud clods and stones but this year they mostly managed with one.

The ground is cut and the potatoes are pulled up onto an elevator.

The mud, stones and helm is riddled and shaken out and deposited back in the field.

The belt runs along the top where any debis left is manually removed.

Then the potatoes drop into a hopper.

The hopper is then tipped into a trailer.

So all is safely gathered in leaving empty rows waiting to be ploughed.

Potato ground needs no extra manure to grow corn next year so it will be ploughed straight away.