Potato Season Update with Seed Grower, Jim Reid.
12.05.2025
Scottish arable farmer Jim Reid, of Milton of Mathers, in Montrose, grows 80ha of seed potatoes exclusively for McCain. Sustainability is at the heart of everything Jim does and he has been an early adopter of many practices designed into improve the farm’s sustainability.
Despite the northern location, potato planting has just started at Milton of Mathers and Jim is optimistic about the season ahead.
“Soil temperatures are still fairly low,” he notes. “As seed producers we’re after quantity and warmer soils tend to give us those higher numbers, so we’ve held back a little.”
This year Jim is growing Sheperdy, Fontane, and some new varieties that are new to him, including King Russet.
“Conditions are really good. The ground is dry.
“We’ve kept our options open this year and only ploughed 65% of the potato acreage. The remainder is still stubble, giving us the opportunity to do non-inversion tillage if the weather allows.”
In recent years, Jim, with the support of the James Hutton Institute (JHI) and McCain, has conducted trials comparing the effects of non-inversion tillage with ploughing. Soil samples, taken before drilling and after harvest, have been tested by the JHI.
“It takes a year for all the results to come back. The porosity test, for example, takes three months. We now have last year’s findings in, and they show that non-inverted soils recover quicker than those that are ploughed.”
These trial results, combined with the changing climate, is causing Jim to rethink potato establishment.
“Ploughing relies on mother nature to deliver some hard winter weather to break down the clods, but we’ve not had those cold conditions the last 10-15 years,” he says.
“The non-inversion tillage works well, shattering the soil, especially in these drier conditions. We do have to use glyphosate to kill surface weeds first, though.
“Still, it’s a good option on the heavier land and means one less pass.”
Jim also has trials on soil conditioners as well as the seed treatments Honesty, Rhino (flutolanil) and Maxim (fludioxonil).
“I’m looking forward to seeing how the seed treatments perform. Last year the trial threw up some interesting results. There was a huge visual difference with Honesty – it looked like it had an extra 20kg of nitrogen. I suspect this was due to the plants having better root systems.
“These potatoes also had less black leg.”
Jim describes potatoes as ‘poor rooters’.
“They like perfect conditions,” he says. “It is why we place the fertiliser in the row – it’s more efficient as the roots don’t have to go looking for it.”
With the new blight strain identified last year, Jim feels that there’s even more emphasis on mixing modes of action in his fungicide programme this year.
“The basic programme is in place, but we will adapt it to the season. Privest is likely to feature as we have used a fair bit in the past and got on well with it.”