Top potatoes start with Beaumonts
Spud master: Roy Beaumont of Creamy Valley Produce in Meeniyan is one of the few remaining seed potato growers in South Gippsland.
ROY and Alison Beaumont, owners of Creamy Valley Produce in Meeniyan, are one of the few remaining seed potato growers in South Gippsland.
Roy grew their first potatoes in the late sixties and prior to that, he worked with the first seed potato grower in the area, Bill McGrath at Grassy Spur and on Ian Hamilton’s Spud Stud at Fish Creek.
During this time, there were 10 seed growers in the area and now today just one grower is left.
“I think there are many reasons seed growers have disappeared from South Gippsland including red tape, high risk of losing the crop and generational change,” Roy said.
As a certified seed potato producer, the Beaumonts are governed by regulations that ensure quality and consistency.
“The certified seed scheme started in 1950s because leaf roll virus was a big issue and each grower had to start with clean seed,” Roy said.
“We operate under a five generation scheme for growing seed.
“First, potato plantlets are cultivated, and then each plantlet is planted to produce mini tubers.
“Potato seed growers purchase their mini tubers; we buy around 6000 per year.
“The mini tubers are planted and they produce the G1 (generation) potatoes. G1 is planted to produce G2 and so on until G4 is reached.
“The G4 potatoes are planted and the produce is sold to growers as certified seed potatoes.”
From July to September, potato growers have their quiet period.
This is a chance to get maintenance done, clean up and get ready for the next season. Roy uses this time to meet with growers in South Australia and Queensland.
By September, the ground has hopefully started to dry out and seed bed preparation begins.
“We boom spray the pasture out with a herbicide and chip hoe the acid matt and turf really fine. It is very important with the newer mechanical harvesters that there are no big clods in the paddock,” Roy said.
Once a deep, fine seed bed has been achieved, planting can begin.
Seed potatoes used to be cut by hand into several pieces, to produce more than one plant from each potato.
“We plant whole seed these days, as it prevents seed piece break down and helps to prevent disease and grows a stronger plant. Once the seed is planted, we inter-row scarify and then hill the rows,” Roy said.
“When the potatoes are just under required size, we take the tops off the plants with a mulcher to stop growth and keep the potatoes at the required size of 65mm.
“The potatoes sit in the ground for around a month to allow the skins to mature.”
Harvesting occurs from the end of February through to the end of April, and they harvest around 25 tonnes of potatoes per day.
Most of the Beaumonts’ potatoes are grown in the Fish Creek and Buffalo area. The quality assurance requirement is a four year rotation.
“In all of the years I have been growing potatoes, there have been only three times I have grown in a paddock that has had a crop of potatoes previously,” Roy said.
“Potatoes are stored in the shed and we start grading around seven-10 days after harvest. Twelve tonnes of seed are graded per day into 1.2 tonne bags and then are transported overnight to South Australia or Queensland to fresh market growers.”
Creamy Valley Produce sends half of their potatoes to South Australia and the other half to Queensland.
“An integral part of our business is our crew who are involved with ground preparation, harvest and grading the crop and Alison who does the bookwork and accounting,” Roy said.
“Every potato grower knows he is only as good as the people he has around him.”
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Posted by brad on Aug 1 2012. Filed under Rural News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
