When spring has sprung

Agricultural journalist, smallholder and editor of Ford & Fordson Tractors Magazine Jane Brooks, joins us for her regular look at the world of agricultural machinery

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As March comes round, it's time to put the hedge cutter away from 1st March to the 31st August, as nesting birds need protecting. However, there is plenty of other work to be getting on with.

We tend to plant early potatoes towards the middle or end of March, it really depends if there are a few late frosts. We chit the seed potatoes in old egg trays and it's always a delight to have the first digging of new potatoes, boiled with a generous slither of butter on them.

We plant about half an acre and use a tractor and potato ridger to get the seed beds ready and then a potato planter to sow them. It saves a huge amount of work and our kit is as old as the hills, the ridger is an old David brown one and the planter, well its green, but what make it is I have no idea, as it may have once had a label but it's well gone.

Luckily, in the smallholding world ridgers, potato lifters and planters are available for anything from a two wheel cultivator or compact tractor, such as the choice of one, two or three row ridgers available from Maidstone based Buffalo machines. Or tractor mounted models to fit a small classic tractor, such as a Ferguson TE-20 or Ford 2000 or a more modern machine.

A good selection of second hand potato kit is also on offer from various dealers, online auction sites or farm auctions from around two hundred and fifty pounds for a two-row tractor mounted ridger.

Well-known brand Siromer market potato diggers, that can also be used as destoners, although at around £1,250 they would need to have enough work to earn their keep.

Husqvarna do a TF 325 Tiller Ridger Kit, designed to go with their TF 325 Tiller, Red Band UK, in Leicestershire are one of the companies that market this set up.