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Last week, the Northern Irish College of Agriculture Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) brought a group of potato growers to Scotland to look at innovations in potato storage.
The trip was organised by CAFRE as part of the new Farm Innovation Visit Scheme (FIVS).
FIVS is part of the NI Rural Development Programme and funds groups of farmers to visit farms outside of the country to see innovative technologies and practices in use on farms elsewhere, but not yet in use in NI.
The family-owned company grows in the region of 500ac of potatoes annually
The Irish Farmers Journal accompanied the growers on the trip.
Subsequent reports will detail the various farms and storage units which were seen.
However, one farm visit of particular interest was to the farm of Robert Doig, owner of Caithness Potatoes.
The family-owned company grows in the region of 500ac of potatoes annually.
This mostly consists of seed for export for markets such as Europe, north Africa, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada.
In addition to this, it also co-ordinates its own breeding programme, growing between 300 and 400 varieties annually.
At the time of the visit, the farm staff were busy grading Maris Piper seed.
We took a look around the grading line, which is capable of grading 10 tonne of seed per hour.
Watch the video below.
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