The advance to automation in potato planting

This article examined the move towards greater mechanisation in the production of potatoes

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The combination of almost static potato prices and steadily rising costs on the farm have during the past few years presented British farmers with the problem of finding ways in which they could increase yield and at the same time cut the scarce, expensive labour required to work this major arable crop. 

Traditionally, the ‘mechanical’ potato planter consisted of a simple framework carrying seed containers, the operators, and ridging bodies to cover the seed drills. Seed was hand-fed down tubes.

The increasing shortage of seasonal labour led to the development of semi-automatic machines that carried out the actual planting operation but still had to be fed by hand.

FIRST AUTOMATIC PLANTERS 

The next stage in the application of automation to potato planting in the UK came with the introduction of apparently fully automatic planters from the US, the Netherlands and Germany. 

The design of these machines is based on the principle of a continuous belt or chain of cups each large enough to pick up only one